Baltimore, Maryland - A day after her trial began in federal court, Susan A. Pratt, age 47, of Crofton, Maryland, pleaded guilty on April 23, 2013 to receipt of unauthorized payments as a government employee.
The plea agreement was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge M. Elise Chawaga, Fraud Detection Office, U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
Pratt was a supervisory traffic management specialist in the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Relocation Services section, located in Annapolis Junction, Maryland. Relocation Services is responsible for paying the relocation expenses of BOP employees when they are reassigned to another duty station. Pratt was responsible for providing relocating BOP employees with a list of approved movers. After the employee selected the carrier, Pratt referred the move to agents of the carrier. Pratt later signed the government bills of lading, which became the agreement between BOP and the carrier/agent for the move.
According to her plea agreement, from 2007 to 2008, Pratt caused moves for employees who chose Mayflower as their carrier to be sent to a Mayflower agent - Klavuhn Moving & Storage. In January 2006 and December 2007, the sales representative for Klavuhn Moving & Storage provided two gift cards to Pratt for a salon and spa, in the amounts of $1,007 and $790, and Pratt accepted and used the gift cards, which were significantly more than the $50 in gifts that government employees are allowed to receive annually from individuals with whom they do business. Her receiving the gift cards also served to supplement her government salary and inappropriately compensated her for her work as an employee of the BOP.
Pratt also received free moving services from two moving companies in December 2007 and May 2010.
Pratt faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander scheduled sentencing for June 25, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Joyce K. McDonald and Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean Marlaire and Matthew W. Lunder, assigned from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, who are prosecuting the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
