Both the owner and the director of a California trucking school have been accused of allegedly cheating the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $4 million.
Special Agents with the Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General arrested Robert Waggoner on Thursday of last week. Waggoner was the director of Alliance School of Trucking, a CDL school in the Los Angeles area. Then, on Tuesday of this week, Emmit Marshall, the owner, turned himself in to authorities.
Alliance was certified under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, allowing veteran who attend to have their tuition paid by the VA. In addition, the VA pays students a housing allowance and even helps cover the cost of books and supplies.
Marshall and Waggoner are accused of encouraging veterans to “enroll” in the school without actually attending classes. The VA would pay Alliance their tuition, and the veterans would pocket the housing allowance and other cash without ever stepping foot in a classroom.
The alleged fraudsters would then create and submit fake paperwork to make it look like the veterans were attending the school.
Over a roughly 3.5 year period, the VA paid the school $2.35 million for students who were never there, and paid $1.96 million to the students themselves.
“The VA offers generous benefits to veterans who have put their lives on the line to safeguard America,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Brown. “Fraud schemes, particularly those involving schooling for veterans, compromise the system designed to help veterans after they complete their service.”
Marshall and Wagoner are each facing nine counts of wire fraud, with a maximum sentence of 20 years for each charge.
Source: mynewsla, vcstar, federaltimes, ccjdigital, allianceschooloftrucking
Swohawk says
Hang ’em high.
Mike says
Typical, many companies see veterans and their benefits as an easy way to make a higher profits. training and collect on GI Bill tuitions and typically lower cost or no need to provide health care plus Hire a veteran get a Government kickback incentive. Perfect for big motor carriers that hire a thousand or so drivers every year, treat them like shit until they quit then hire a bunch more just to keep them Government subsidies coming in.
Harley Waters says
I’m Sorry, but you need to hang the vets also for taking part in the affair also!
Christina says
Hey I’m a vet that sucks. What about the Veterans who participated ? Are they going after them. They give the rest of us a bad name too.
Bill.comp says
They shoud, they had to know what they were doing was wrong, they are just as guilty of fraud as the guys from the school. The sad part of this is, almost every state has some form of school for drivers. I was at an auction several months ago met a fellow from KC, had a school there, he spent 30 minutes ranting about the feds (VA ) trying to put him out of business. They said he was graduating drivers that were not fully qualified to drive, and told him, he had 30 days to remove every truck from his fleet that had an AUTOMATIC transmission. Said he was going to sue, his contract did not stipulate what kind of transmission he had to have in his trucks. This is indicative of what I have seen. At least the VA should spend about $ 50,000.00, a year to hire a contract performance inspector, to travel around unannounced , and check on each and every organization, that gets money from the VA ,under that program.
Derrick Belton says
I went to a school once ( Taylor Business Inst ) in Chicago, IL 1n 1974 after they got the VA money they closed, I never new what to do, is there a limittation or can I get some help.
Juan says
This type of crookedness happens all the time. I’ve owned and operated truck schools for more than 30 years and it always amazes me how many scum bags are in this industry. I know a guy named Tank that is a driver and he got his start after attending a dog grooming school first
Andrew says
The government need to send a strong message by sentencing these thieves to the maximum sentence aloud. Let others think twice
Roy says
They should put all parties that are involved in jail and make them pay every penny back to the Va. I am also a Vet and there are many of my brothers and sisters out there that could use those dollars to learn a trade that can earn them money to live on. The Va. should have a department that travels around checking on these schools and businesses that receive Gov. monies to make sure they are doing what they say they are receiving money for.
KT says
Anybody could go to his arraignment trial on April 10th 2018 at 8:30 a.m.
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles California 90012
Criminal case# 17-00194
Emmit Marshall/Amit Mashal
&
Robert Waggoner
United States Attorney
Major Fraud Section
Supervisor George Cardona
(213) 894-2400