Police Horrified at What VA Employee Was Doing to Vulnerable Vets Outside Their Rooms
A former database administrator with the Department of Veterans Affairs has been indicted on charges he took part of his work home with him — namely, the personal data of the veterans he was serving.
According to KATV-TV, 32-year-old Philip Hill of Benton, Arkansas, was fired by the VA at the end of last year. He decided to get his revenge by putting the data of vets in the hands of criminal elements.
Unfortunately for him, those “criminal elements” weren’t what he thought they were.
A news release from the Department of Justice said an “investigation revealed that Hill offered to sell the personal data of veterans, their dependents, and VA employees for $100,000 to a confidential source working with law enforcement.”
“Hill was terminated by the VA on December 6, 2017,” the release reads. “After being fired from the VA, Hill said he could still access the information remotely with a VA computer in his possession, or by stealing a VA server.
“Hill was arrested outside a secure area at the VA that housed the data he was offering for sale. Law enforcement officers executing a search warrant found a VA computer in Hill’s home.
“Mr. Hill tried to use his position and skills to enrich himself at the expense of veterans who have honorably served our country, and the VA employees working to serve them,” Cody Hiland, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, said as he announced the unsealing of the indictment last week.
“This indictment reflects our commitment to defending our veterans and federal employees from those who take advantage of their public service by illegally accessing and selling their personal information.
“It will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
If he’s convicted, Hill is going to be spending a lot of time in prison.
According to the release, trafficking in Social Security numbers can carry a sentence of 10 years behind bars, aggravated identity theft two years, and possessing access device-making equipment 15 years.
His trial has been set for March 5.
Perhaps no agency has seen quite as much of an overhaul under the Trump administration as the VA, and you can see why. In fact, the president signed an executive order to create a position specifically to fire incompetent employees.
And boy, were there a lot of them. And some of them, it seems, were also malicious.
Of course, Mr. Hill may indeed be innocent. If he’s guilty, however, he needs to pay — and pay with some serious time in the slammer.
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