An Iowa senator is calling for an investigation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Office of the Inspector General based on whistleblower allegations that the office has misused funds to finance personal vacations and make frivolous purchases.
Whistleblowers have alleged to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-IA, that Special Agent in Charge Quenton Sallows conducted a fraudulent temporary duty scheme which allowed him to sidestep personal travel expenses; and have also alleged that former Deputy Inspector General Tyler Smith and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Shimon Richmond made “wasteful mass purchases” – including unnecessary, expensive and even defective law enforcement gear.
“It would be one thing if the allegations stopped at poor financial management, but it seems the toxic culture of retaliation, fear, and abuse, which was a hallmark of former Chairman [Martin] Gruenberg’s reign over the FDIC, has permeated your organization as well,” Ernst wrote Wednesday in a letter to FDIC Inspector General Jennifer Fain.
A number of whistleblowers alleged retaliation against employees who questioned management decisions and spending.
Following the workplace culture scandal at the FDIC under Gruenberg – which began with a Wall Street Journal expose detailing a rampant culture of sexual harassment – Ernst was one of six senators who wrote Fain bemoaning the timeline for which the FDIC OIG provided victims justice.
“In the intervening year since initial reports surfaced, and despite clear and damning evidence, we are no closer to holding perpetrators accountable. This is unacceptable,” Ernst wrote at the time.
Whistleblowers, she wrote Wednesday, alleged an also-toxic environment at the OIG.
“I am deeply alarmed by whistleblowers’ reports noting similar misconduct in the IG’s office itself,” she said. “Namely, ‘[w]e have the same culture over here,’ and ‘[h]ow can we ethically conduct fair and objective investigations into agency misconduct/mismanagement, when similar things are happening right here in the FDIC OIG?’”
Ernst called on Fain to investigate the allegations of misconduct at the OIG and to provide details on the decision to open a one-state regional office in Florida, which she dubbed duplicative, unnecessary and “a particularly egregious example of administrative bloat.”
She gave Fain until May 2 to respond.
The FDIC OIG spokesperson did not respond by press time.
