FORMER OFFICE MANAGER OF SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY GOES TO PRISON FOR GOVERNMENT THEFT

The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
Friday, March 30, 2012
Former Senate Office Manager Sentenced to 20 Months in Prison for Wire Fraud and Theft of Government Property
WASHINGTON – A former office manager in the U.S. Senate was sentenced today to 20 months in prison for wire fraud and theft of government property, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Ngozi Pole, of Waldorf, Md., also was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia to serve three years of supervised release and 500 hours of community service following his prison term and ordered to pay $77,608.86 in restitution.  Pole was found guilty at trial on Feb. 1, 2011, of five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property.

According to evidence presented at trial, beginning in at least 2003 and continuing until January 2007, Pole repeatedly submitted paperwork causing the Senate to pay him larger bonus payments than had been approved by either the chief of staff or former U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  According to the evidence presented at trial, these unauthorized bonus payments totaled more than $75,000.  Pole hid the existence of these unauthorized payments by repeatedly transmitting information to the chief of staff that falsely showed that he received only those payments that had been authorized.  

This sentencing was handled by Trial Attorney Tracee Plowell of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.  The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office.   Former Senator Kennedy’s office cooperated fully with the investigation.