Justice Department Charges Former VA Worker at Michigan Facility with Embezzlement

Legal Help for Veterans is a law firm helping veterans get the benefits they deserve.

Northville, MI (Law Firm Newswire) June 15, 2015 – Ex-canteen employee admits to pilfering funds, blowing it on strippers, prostitutes and gambling.

The Justice Department announced on May 5 that a former canteen manager at a Veteran Administration facility in Ann Arbor, Mich., admitted to embezzling approximately $150,000 from the VA retail store and spending the money on strippers, prostitutes and gambling. The former VA employee, Glenn Alan Bates, was arraigned on the federal charges before a U.S. magistrate judge in Detroit the same day.

The accusations against Bates, 57, of Saline, Mich., included that he stole cash from the sales of commemorative military hats, vending machines and other retail sales between May 2006 and March 2013 while he worked at the VA’s Ann Arbor Healthcare System. A May 2013 audit discovered that more than $478,000 was missing from the retail store where Bates worked, a discovery that prompted the VA’s Office of Inspector General to launch an investigation.

Bates admitted to spending the money on $500 lap dances and sex with a stripper at a Ohio club. He acknowledged to investigators that he met with other strippers and prostitutes, and that trysts he participated in at hotels were frequent and nonexclusive. Bates also admitted that he blew some of the stolen money on gambling treks to Indianapolis and Battle Creek, Mich.

“The charges against this former VA employee detail some very brazen, outrageous behavior on his part,” said James G. Fausone, a prominent attorney in Northville, Mich., whose firm specializes in legal services for veterans. “But just as shocking is the fact that the alleged thievery that financed his activities went undetected for nearly seven years.”

Bates served 18 months in federal prison in the late 1970s in connection with charges against him for stealing a car. He also was sentenced to probation in 1992 after facing felony arson charges. If convicted of all current charges, Bates faces up to 10 years in prison.

Bates’ arraignment marks the latest embarrassing news development concerning the VA. The most embarrassing and far-reaching among them was a nationwide scandal in which VA employees were found to have manipulated wait times at department hospitals last spring. That controversy resulted in the resignation of former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

“The VA certainly does not need yet another troubling example of this type of unflattering publicity,” Fausone said. “But neither do the taxpayers and our veterans need nor deserve yet another instance of where they are getting fleeced or poorly served.”

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