Illinois Veterans Affairs Official Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Accepting Illegal Gratuities

WASHINGTON – The director of the Hines, Ill., Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) has agreed to plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy that allowed a subordinate to make contracting decisions regarding a company owned by the subordinate’s spouse, the Department of Justice announced today. The director also has agreed to plead guilty to accepting illegal gratuities.

In a plea agreement filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Joel M. Gostomelsky, admitted to conspiring with a subordinate between 2000 and 2007 to allow the subordinate to be involved in the hiring and supervising of temporary pharmacist employees supplied to the CMOP by a company owned by the subordinate’s spouse. Among other actions, Gostomelsky falsely represented to VA officials that the subordinate had no role at the CMOP in the ordering of these services, and that the subordinate would be removed from making decisions affecting the employees of the temporary staffing company. See, USDOJ.

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