Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Conspiracy

On December 18, 2020, a former BOP Correctional Officer and student of Alliance School of Trucking (AST) in Los Angeles County, California, was sentenced to sixty months of probation, with the condition that he perform 168 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $16,791 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for one count of conspiracy.  Carlos Mora De Santiago, who was assigned to the Federal Correctional Institutions in Terminal Island, California, was sentenced in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.  According to the Criminal Complaint, from in or about September 2011 through in or about April 2015, AST’s Director, employees, and students conspired together to defraud the VA.  Specifically, the Criminal Complaint alleged that the Director of AST and co-conspirators recruited eligible veterans to defraud the VA of Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits by telling veterans that they could collect benefits from the VA by enrolling in their truck driving school but not actually attending educational programs.  According to the Complaint, Mora De Santiago was one of several military veterans that fraudulently applied for and collected VA Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits through AST.  The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Los Angeles Field Office, the VA OIG, and the FBI.