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Assistant Fire Chief Arrested on Fraud Charges
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A South King County fire official has been arrested by federal agents on charges of tax and wire fraud.
Grant G. Gaspard, the smiling fella to your right, apparently embezzled $500,000 from his department over several years in 
order to send himself some high-tech toys. Items included high-end photography equipment, night-vision goggles, and scopes and lasers for weaponry issued to military personnel that were sent to Gaspard's personal residence after being purchased using company delivery codes and credit cards.
Actions like Gaspard's are the kind that really get under my skin. Services in this state are underfunded enough without guys like Gaspard furthering the problem for their own personal enjoyment.
A couple of things strike me as strange from this initial article. Number one is the list of items that Gaspard was purchasing.
"In an affidavit written by an agent with the FBI, Gaspard is alleged to have bought a single Nikon camera lens worth more than $8,000, a high-definition Sony television, a Blu-ray player, Apple computers, night-vision scopes, and rifle scopes and laser sights for firearms designed for military personnel."
Was he selling some of these things, as one could assume, or were these for personal use. And if so, what the hell was he using them for? Secondly, is this line in the article:
"Church said the irregularities did not show up in an audit of the department, which covers 41 square miles of Federal Way, Des Moines and unincorporated King County, and has 160 employees and a budget of $24 million."
How did irregularities not show up in an audit? I could understand if it had been $20-30 grand, but with the size of that budget, you have to think a half of a million dollars would seem suspicious to somone.
As this is really all the information that is available not many of these question can be answered. But as the investigation continues, something has got to come out of this. More info as its posted.
Topics: Grant G. Gaspard , Fraud , Federal
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