Ian Clement Held under Debt Fraud
Boris Johnson’s former deputy mayor, Ian Clement, has been charged under the Fraud Act following his resignation from office earlier in the summer. Mr Clement, 44, resigned after a string of allegations about his use of his corporate credit card. He has been charged with five offences under section one and two of the act in connection with alleged misuse of expenses. He will be appearing at City of Westminster magistrates court on September 8th. Mr Clement’s lawyer, Jeremy Summers of Russell Jones & Walker, said: “Mr Clement is surprised and saddened that the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] should have felt that prosecution was appropriate.
“He has co-operated fully with the investigation which relates to five meal expense claims which have a total value of £227.00. In the context of other, and far more significant, investigations it is a matter of regret that political expediency appears to be present.” Given that proceedings have been brought it is inappropriate to comment further at this time.” Mr Johnson has lost several high profile figures from his team after a string of controversies. First transport minister Tim Parker left after discovering he would not be made chairman of Transport for London. He was preceded by Ray Lewis, another deputy mayor, following allegations about his past and James McGrath, senior political strategist, for comments about immigrants of Caribbean origin Paralegal Busted for Claiming $430,000 in Fake Travel Expenses As a blogger, it’s not my mission to rat out every paralegal who makes a mistake, but this story from the San Antonio Express News is notable for the sheer audacity of the alleged misdeeds.
In this case, the since fired paralegal copped to submitting more than $430,000.00 in fake travel claims. Leo G. Alvarado, an ex-lawyer who worked as a paralegal for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for approximately 14 years, “pleaded guilty to four felony counts of mail fraud for submitting false claims for mileage and per-diem reimbursement.” He claimed he had visited several of the organization’s clients to help them fill out their Veterans Affairs Department claims. In reality, the people he claimed to have visited were dead, did not exist or were not even clients of the TRLA, previously known as the Texas Rural Legal Aid.
It provides legal services to the poor. It’s not unheard of for employees to pad travel reimbursement requests or misplace a few meal receipts, but almost half a million dollars in fraudulent mileage and per-diem claims is like winning the travel expense lottery. Why didn’t this kind of money raise any red flags in TRLA’s bookkeeping department a long time ago? How much does it cost to visit the poor – in the same state? Our eagle-eyed office manager and bookkeeper notices if we accidentally write 43 cents instead of 34 cents on a mileage reimbursement form.