From: Julian Kassner--

Date: February 27. 2018 at 5:10:03 PM EST
To:

 

Subject: CAVHCS Criminal Fraud Update
To All:

Prior to working for the VA thought of whistleblower retaliation in the context of
adverse employment actions that were compliant with regulations and therefore could
potentially be legal and legitimate, but not for the retaliatory motive behind the
action. However, at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System under the
leadership of Dr. Linda Boyle the acts of whistleblower retaliation have crossed the line to
blatant criminal activity, meaning actions to harm wnistleblowers that are unquestionably
illegal and even Violate criminal statues regardless of any possible motive or explanation. I
have previously reported multiple acts of criminal fraud by CAVHCS Leadership to facilitate
retaliation against me while I was a witness to an OAWP investigation. The acts of provable
fraud reported range from backdating documents to tampering with the exhibits in an AIB
evidence file. However, despite overwhelming documentation of criminal acts to facilitate
wnistleblower retaliation no corrective action was taken to assist any of the Victims including
myself.

Taking no corrective action in response to fraud and other criminal acts targeting
wnistleblowers for all practical purposes represents an endorsement of the behavior which in
turn will result in further escalation. This has now happened at CAVHCS. ln this email I have
summarized additional acts of criminal fraud that have recently become aware of including
some acts of which may constitute felonies. while the acts of misconduct and fraud am
reporting in this email may not been previously reported to OAWP, the unchecked violations of
criminal law by the same individuals is part of a pattern of behavior which have reported
repeatedly.

MV termination was not only an illegal whistleblower retaliation it was also carried out
retroactively to fraudulently terminate me prior to the end of probationary period.

Attached are my Leave and Earnings Statements (LES) for the month of December
2017. Clearly if have two LES for pay periods in December 2017 then was a VA employee
during December 2017 and all communications from the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care

System (CAVHCS) to myself, my attorney, VA investigators, and Congress that I was separated
from Federal Service on 10/27/2017 were fraudulent. Likewise all communication to myself,
my attorney, VA investigators, and Congress that I was separated from Federal service during
my probationary period which officially ended at midnight on 10/31/2017 were also lies.
The comments section of my LES for the pay period ending 12/23/2017 states "YOUR
FERS RETIREMENT DATA WAS SENT TO OPM ON 12/12/2017. SEPARATION 10/27/2017." In
other words, my separation was not officially processed until 12/12/2017 and a separation date
of 10/27/2017 was entered into the system retroactively to support the false narrative that the
separation action was completed prior to the end of my probationary period.
There is nothing here that requires further investigation, debate, or analysis. If you
look at my LES for the two-week pay period ending 12/9/2017 I received $9,170.50 in income,
had payroll taxes withheld, had income taxes withheld and paid on my behalf to both the state
of Alabama and the Federal Government, had contributions paid on my behalf to the Federal
Employee Retirement System (FERS), and even accrued leave. For clarification, separating an
employee from Federal service does not simply mean that Dr. Boyle as the Facility Director
asserts that she wishes for it to happen or even signs a letter to effect. There is an
administrative process that must occur in accordance with certain laws and regulatory
requirements before the action is official. A LES is the recognized gold standard of
documentation for establishing a Federal worker's employment status during a given pay
period. My LES for the 2-week pay period ending on 12/9/2017 documents unequivocally that
during the 14 days covered by that pay period I was employed by the Department of Veterans
Affairs as a GS 15 physician. My subsequent LES for the following pay period ending
12/23/2017 documents unequivocally that a separation action was processed on 12/12/2017
with a retroactive separation date of 10/27/2017. This retroactive separation date was
entered so that CAVHCS Leadership could fraudulently assert that my separation action was
completed prior to the end of my probationary period thereby denying me all rights,
protections, and benefits I was legally entitled to as a career status Federal Employee who had
completed his probationary period.

Falsification of payroll records to facilitate my illegal retroactive termination.
The $9,170.50 shown on my leave and earnings statement from 12/9/2017 appears to
represent my earned wages for the days I worked after my purported separation date
10/27/2017. This would include pay for days I worked after the end of my two-year
probationary period. The $9,170.50 shown on my 12/9/2017 is classified as taxable earned
income both on the LES and on my 2017 W-2 form.
The Federal Government pay-roll computers have safeguards to prevent fraud. The
most fundamental safeguard against fraud is that the payroll system does not allow anyone to
pay wages to a Federal employee without defining the specific days the employee is being paid
for. At the same time, the system will not allow payment of wages to anyone who is not an
active Federal employee. Thus, the computer system by design would not allow the processing

 of a retroactive separation date if the employee had worked after that date. In order to
facilitate my illegal and fraudulent retroactive termination CAVHCS leadership needed a way to
circumvent the safeguards in the Government's Payroll processing system specifically put in
place to prevent fraud. Specifically, CAVHCS Leadership needed a way to clear all of my earned
wages from my account while simultaneously falsifying the payroll records to indicate that I did
not work beyond the end of my probationary period.
The solution devised is blatantly fraudulent and absolutely despicable. CAVHCS
Leadership falsified my payroll records to state that the money I earned working after
10/27/2017 was deferred income from a prior year. This is not speculation. This is stated in
the remarks section of the LES. For all of the money paid to me on the 12/9/2017 LES there is
the remark, "PREVIOUSLY DEFERRED DUE TO ANNUAL AGGREGATE LIMIT BEING EXCEEDED
PAID THIS PERIOD." By law no Federal employee can be paid more than the President who
earns $400,000 per year. Occasionally a specialist physician can exceed this limit legally due to
a high salary combined with a relocation or recruitment incentive or other similar situation in
which a high salary is combined with an additional payment of some type. When this occurs
the income must be deferred to the following year because the aggregate limit is
exceeded. The statement in the remarks section has a single specific legal use. This notation is
used to denote that income appearing on an LES is deferred income from a prior year
specifically because the $400,000 aggregate limit for the previous year was exceeded. Thus, it
appears, that Dr. Boyle, the CAVHCS Facility Director, or someone acting on her behalf, engaged
in accounting and payroll fraud by misclassifying the income I earned working past the end of
my probationary period as income deferred from a prior year. In essence, CAVHCS Leadership
tricked the computer into not recognizing that I worked past the end of my two-year
probationary period by fraudulently asserting that the income I earned after the end of my
probationary period was deferred income from a prior year.
For clarification, I have never earned more than $400,000 working for CAVHCS or any
Federal Government Agency in a single year; thus this is unquestionably fraud. To be precise,
there are actually 3 separate fraudulent declarations on my LES for the period ending
12/9/2017:
1. The assertion that the money in question is deferred income from a prior year is untrue.
2. The assertion that I was paid over $400,000 in a prior year is untrue.
3. The actual dates I worked to earn the income in question was not properly recorded in
the time and attendance system at the time the income was credited to me.

Interception of, theft of, and tampering with US Federal mail to cover-up falsification of
payroll records.
In order to cover-up the fact that I had worked beyond the end of my two-year
probationary period it was not enough to just falsify the Federal Government's payroll
records. It was also necessary to prevent me from receiving my pay. Clearly if I received a
paycheck for a pay period after the end of my probationary period it would have alerted me to

 what CAVHCS Leadership was up to. For this part of the deception CAVHCS Leadership resorted
to theft of U.S. mail. Theft of mail, especially mail sent by the Federal Government, is a crime
that has been recognized as a felony since before the days of the Pony Express.
What transpired was brazen but simple. My pay checks which were drafted by the
U.S. Treasury and mailed to me by the Defense Accounting and Finance System (DAFS) in
Cleveland, OH were intercepted by the CAVHCS Director or someone acting on her behalf so
that I would not receive them. The sealed envelopes containing my paychecks were opened,
the contents were removed, and additional lies were told to me, my attorney, Congress, and
likely VA Investigators to cover-up these action.
Among the lies told were repeated statements that my final paycheck had been
"withheld." The term "withholding" refers to an employer not disbursing a portion of an
employee's gross income to cover statutory obligations such as payroll taxes or agreed to
benefits such as health insurance or pension contributions. By definition funds which are
"withheld" from an employees pay are never dispersed to the employee and the LES will reflect
this. When an employee's earned wages are "withheld" the LES will show that the funds were
never dispersed to the employee and document why the money was withheld. However, it
now clear that the paychecks I did not receive were mailed to me my DAFS on schedule, but my
mail was intercepted. Later, when it became clear the funds in question were never legally
withheld, CAVHCS Leadership again lied to me, my attorney, Congress, and likely VA
investigators by asserting that I had been paid in full when it was clearly known to CAVHCS
Leadership that my paychecks had been stolen out of the mail and were still in their possession.
If anyone questions the seriousness of this crime, note that multiple paychecks were
intercepted totaling almost $30,000 and representing over $40,000 in gross earned
wages. There is nothing to debate here. Once a letter is placed in the mail, it becomes the
legal property of the recipient and the only people who are authorized to handle the mail are
Postal workers or mail room personnel for the sole purpose of delivering the mail to its
intended recipient. Nobody at CAVHCS had any legal authority to intercept, open, or retain my
mail for any reason. This is a crime. We are talking about mail sent from a separate Federal
Agency in another state through the U.S. Postal Service which was addressed to me by
name. This were sealed envelopes addressed to me and intended for me which were
intercepted, opened, and deliberately kept from me. This is mail theft pure and simple. I am
not an attorney, but based on my lay-person's reading of Title 18 U.S. Code 1708 - Theft or
receipt of stolen mail and 1702 - Obstruction of Correspondence, it would appear that the
premeditated targeted theft of almost $30,000 of U.S. Federal Treasury checks by intercepting
US mail is a felony. Even as a non-attorney I am confident that the criminal statutes on mail
theft and related crimes do not contain an exemption of VA Hospital Directors.

Criminally tampering with and falsifying personnel records to facilitate mail theft.
All Federal employees are paid by direct deposit. This is now a Federal mandate that
was put in place both for efficiency and to prevent theft of paper checks from the mail. My

 Navy scholarship payments, my pay while on active duty with the US NAVY, and all pay received
during my first 2 years of employment with the VA were all sent by direct deposit to the same
USAA checking account. I have never changed the account that my pay should be sent to nor
have I ever requested any payment be made by paper check for any reason.
However, in order to steal my pay checks from the mail I needed to be paid by paper
check. By law an employee will only be paid by paper check as opposed to direct deposit if the
employee specifically requests it and even then the request must be approved. Since I never
made such a request, this likely represents an additional act of criminal fraud since my method
of payment could not have been legally changed to paper check in the absence of a false
assertion by someone that I requested the change. Thus, the method of payment for my
Federal pay was switched from electronic direct deposit to paper check sent through the mail
without my consent, without any notification to me, and without my awareness. It now
appears that the sole reason for making this change was to allow for the interception of the
payments by stealing my paychecks from the mail.
In addition to switching me to payment by paper check, my personal mailing address
was also fraudulently changed. Attached is a scanned copy the exterior of the envelops as
emailed to me on 1/19/2018 by Mr. Willie Bradley, Acting CAVHCS Human Resource Officer
while my paychecks were still in the possession of CAVHCS. My mailing address on both
envelopes is "215 Perry Hill Road, Montgomery AL 36193." This address appears on the actual
checks from the Treasury Department as my personal address. This is not my address and has
never been my address. The address where my paychecks were mailed to is the building where
the office of Dr. Linda Boyle, CAVHCS Director is located. For clarification, my official legal
address and mailing address from the first day I applied for employment with the VA to the
present has never changed. Thus it appears that my personal mailing address was changed to
the building where the CAVHCS Director's office was located, without my awareness or consent,
so that my paychecks and potentially other important documents would be mailed to an
address where my mail could be stolen.
Nobody has the right to change a Federal Employee's official legal mailing address in a
Federal computer system without the employee's awareness or consent, so clearly this record
tampering is a crime. However, when you consider that my mailing address was falsified to
facilitate the interception of almost $30,000 in treasury checks from the mail and cover-up the
falsification of my payroll records with clear malicious intent, this fraudulent changing of my
mailing address may also reach the threshold of a felony.

Violations of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and denial of access to health insurance:
The reason that I never receive the notice about my option for continuation of health
insurance coverage within 60 days of my purported termination in October 2017 is that at the
time my employment was not terminated. In actuality, I was lied to and told my termination
had been processed so I would stop reporting to work and the Facility could stop paying me,
but apparently no termination action was processed until 12/12/2017. The payments from the

 VA required to continue my family's health insurance were discontinued at the end of October
2017, but because my Federal employment was not official terminated until 6 weeks later the
mechanism to ensure I had access to continuation of health care coverage for my family was
never activated or available to me.
My LES for the pay period ending 12/9/2017 documents the truth regarding what
occurred. My LES for the pay period ending 12/9/2017 clearly shows that during this pay
period I was an active VA employee with no payment being made towards health
insurance. The foundation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is that all employers above a
certain size must provide health care options for their employees with other options going into
effect when an individual an becomes unemployed. However, in my case the CAVHCS Director
decided to discontinue payment of my health insurance while I was still an employee in order
to create the appearance that I had already been separated from Federal service. Under the
ACA an employee has the right to continue whatever healthcare coverage is in place at the time
his employment is terminated. However, because someone chose to stop paying for my
family's health insurance while I was still employed there was no health insurance coverage in
place at the time of my termination for me to continue. The ACA does not allow an employee
to continue health care coverage when coverage is discontinued due to non-payment prior to
loss of employment.
Under the ACA my right to receive coverage for my family's preexisting medical
conditions under any health plan is premised on my having maintained continuous health care
coverage when it was available to me. However, my LES statements from 12/9/2017 as well as
other documentation I now have confirms that the payment of my health insurance was
stopped at least 6 weeks prior to any official employment termination action. As a result my
health insurance was discontinued for non-payment, not loss of employment. As a result, not
only was there no health insurance coverage in place at the time of my termination that I could
elect to continue, this discontinuation for non-payment resulted in the forfeiture of my legal
right to coverage of pre-existing conditions for my family under any health plan for the
upcoming year. This rule under the ACA is intended to discourage people from choosing to
drop their coverage because they do not want to pay the bills. However, in my case the
CAVHCS Director, or someone acting on her behalf, made a decision to stop payment of my
family's health insurance while I was still employed without my awareness and in violation of
the law.
Thus, the criminal fraud committed by CAVHCS Leadership to facilitate my illegal
retroactive termination is also directly responsible for my family and children having
compromised access to healthcare. I have 2 children who have a medical condition that
requires a very expensive medication and the top tier health insurance available to Federal
Employee's was a factor I considered when applying for employment with the VA. Never in my
wildest nightmare did I image, that to facilitate whistleblower retaliation, a VA Hospital Director
would be allowed to falsify payroll records in a manner that would deny my family access to
healthcare coverage entirely. As a result my family in now paying the price for the unchecked
criminal fraud committed by CAVHCS Leadership. This will continue until Secretary Shulkin,
OAWP, Congress, or the U.S. Department of Justice takes appropriate action.

 Request from assistance:
The "WP" in OAWP stands for whistleblower protection. Thus it is unclear to me why
blatant acts of retaliation against the whistleblower's to an OAWP investigation including
multiple acts of criminal fraud have been permitted to go entirely unchecked.
What is even harder to understand is why absolutely no action is being taken to assist
myself or any of the victims of the criminal acts perpetrated by VA Officials to facilitate
whistleblower retaliation. The damages inflicted by these actions continue to escalate every
day. We are talking about by needed medicine for my children and even my ability to apply for
hospital privileges and state medical licenses. How can I apply for hospital privileges when
there are time line discrepancies created by the falsified VA records that cannot be reasonably
explained. How do I explained the fact that the vaccinations and PPD for tuberculosis screening
that I need to document to obtain staff privileges at any legitimate hospital in America were
completed by the CAVHCS employee / occupational health office while I was a VA employee
AFTER I was purportedly separated from the VA? Why should my career suffer because of the
record falsification committed by CAVHCS and VISN-7 Senior Leadership?
When I was called upon to testify to an OWAP investigation I expressed concern
regarding the retaliations that would undoubtedly result from providing truthful testimony and
I was assured by OAWP that I would be protected from such retaliation. The NOTICE OF
WITNESS OBLIGATIONS, PROTECTIONS, AND PRIVACY MATTERS that I was required to sign
stated,
"You will be protected from reprisal for providing truthful testimony or otherwise cooperating
lawfully with this investigation. If you feel that you are being treated adversely for such actions,
please advise a Board member immediately so that we can ensure that effective corrective and
remedial action is taken."
I am still waiting for the "effective corrective and remedial action" which was assured to
myself and other witnesses who had the courage to provide truthful testimony to OAWP. If the
misconduct and violations of criminal law I reported in this email or any prior communication would
be better addressed by the VA Inspector General, the Department of Justice, a Congressional
Investigation, or any other appropriate authority, then I ask that Mr. O'Rourke, Secretary Shulkin,
OAWP, and the House Committee of Veterans Affairs forward a copy of this email, all prior
correspondence from me, and all other relevant documentation to the appropriate authority and
work that authority to ensure appropriate corrective action is taken.
Please let me know what action OAWP or Secretary Shulkin is taking to address the
multiple acts of fraud and other violations of criminal law committed by CAVHCS and VISN-7 Senior
Leadership to facilitate whistleblower retaliation.

 Sincerely,

Dr. Junan Kassner, MD