Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen Schenning announced Wednesday a former civilian government pay technician with the 11th Comptroller Squadron at Joint Base Andrews was sentenced to two years in prison for theft of government property.
Thirty-year-old Rodney Nelson of Dunkirk, Maryland had access to civilian employee’s personal information, while working as a civilian government pay technician from October 2008 to November 2013. Nelson took a position at the Veterans Affairs Center in November 2013, according to court documents.
Nelson abused his position, while employed at the Veterans Affairs Center and Joint Base Andrews, by altering the personal information of former and current government employees. He diverted money into bank accounts he controlled and to avoid detection, he made it appear that the employees received the money.
During the scheme, Nelson stole about $311,874.84 from at least 14 people, by manipulating payroll records. He replaced one particular former government employees banking information with his personal bank account. He then added more than 2,000 hours of time to the individual’s payroll records, so he would receive the deposited payments.