by  Paul Shannon
There is a reason people want a smaller government that has less chance of corruption. Recently, there was a conviction by the state of Virginia of one of their Department of Taxation compliance supervisors.
The man, who at one point was an agent for the Dan River Baptist Association, was caught after an investigation by the Office of the State Inspector General. The man was able to get away with this for almost seven years and stole $1.3 million from the hard-working citizens of Virginia. This should make people wonder how often people get away with this, possibly being less greedy.
Release Statement
Here is a statement from the Virginia OSIG on the case:
A retired Virginia Department of Taxation (Virginia Tax) employee will be in court soon to face charges of misappropriating taxpayer funds, totaling nearly $1.3 million. The Virginia Office of the State Inspector General conducted a yearlong investigation after Virginia Tax conducted an internal investigation and notified OSIG about the allegations concerning a retired Compliance Supervisor and two Virginia Tax employees who allegedly gave him access to Virginia Tax computer systems and confidential taxpayer accounts. A Richmond grand jury indicted the retired Compliance Supervisor last month. He is scheduled to be arraigned July 6 on one felony count of embezzlement and one felony count of computer trespass. These charges carry a sentence of up to 25 years in prison. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is prosecuting the case in Richmond City Circuit Court.
âThis was a complicated and serpentine investigation that reached a successful conclusion through the perseverance and thoroughness of our special agents here at OSIG and in collaboration with Virginia Tax and OAG staff,â said State Inspector General Michael C. Westfall. âThis is another example of the hard work that state agencies provide the citizens of the Commonwealth.â
The retired employee has repaid the Commonwealth about $250,000.
Here is hoping the state will be able to recover the rest of the money this man took from the taxpayers. It should make the citizens of Virginia wonder how well people are paid attention to in the government agencies when the people are in charge of taxpayer money. Steve Anderson was able to get away with this from 2013 on. There is no exact information on how he was caught, but greed does this to people. This means the state government is too large if a person has the time to steal like this.
