POLITICS: FBI raids Secret Service agent’s home in major fraud investigation: Report – USSA News

A new report claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided a Secret Service agent’s home earlier this month as part of an alleged tax and wire fraud investigation.

According to RealClearPolitics, multiple sources in the Secret Service community confirmed that a Secret Service agent working as part of Vice President J.D. Vance’s security detail allegedly accepted donations to a charity that supposedly helps domestic violence victims and inner-city youth and did not provide its services in a report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

RealClearPolitics reported that the sources indicated that the raid of the Secret Service agent’s house was executed on or around December 8, following a joint investigation conducted for over a year by the FBI and the IRS. The outlet noted that over a dozen Secret Service agents have been interviewed by federal officials as part of the investigation.

Sources familiar with the investigation told RealClearPolitics that the Secret Service agent whose home was raided by the FBI was placed on unpaid administrative leave and that the agent’s security clearance was suspended.

RealClearPolitics reported that the agent was listed as both the chairman and the founder of the charity’s board of directors on IRS documents. The charity allegedly provides inner-city youth with laptops as part of its “Laptops for Hope Program.” The outlet noted that sources confirmed that some of the laptops distributed by the charity were donated by the Secret Service.

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According to tax documents obtained by RealClearPolitics, the charity’s mission is to offer “emergency assistance to survivors of domestic violence, financial literacy, preventing childhood obesity, & [stet] supporting families affected by HIV/AIDS in VA, MD, DC, & GA.”

RealClearPolitics reported that the Secret Service agent under FBI investigation could not only face potential criminal prosecution but could also face insider threat allegations for showing poor judgement and criminal intent in the alleged fraud case.

According to RealClearPolitics, multiple agents and employees at the Secret Service could be implicated in the tax and wire fraud investigation, including agents who allegedly made donations to the charity and received part of their donations back from the charity as payments. Sources told RealClearPolitics that federal investigators are considering whether Secret Service agents were able to use the donations to file deductions or write off work-related expenses.

One source told RealClearPolitics that the FBI’s tax fraud investigation is “bigger than the 2012 prostitution scandal because agents are trained to investigate tax and bank wire fraud – anyone involved knew what they were doing was illegal.” The outlet noted that multiple Secret Service agents and other personnel were fired in 2012 after it was discovered that the agents had hired prostitutes during a Colombia trip ahead of former President Barack Obama’s trip to the country for the Summit of the Americas.