GovernmentExecutive.com

A former top Education Department appointee pleaded guilty last week to charging the government for personal travel expenses on 14 occasions and for receiving sick pay while working as a visiting judge for the State of Texas.

Eric G. Andell, former deputy undersecretary for safe and drug-free schools, agreed to pay $8,659.85 to reimburse the government for fraudulent expenses as part of his plea agreement with the Justice Department. He faces the maximum sentence of a year in prison followed by three years of probation and a $100,000 fine for violating conflict of interest laws.

From November 2002 to September 2003, Andell approved official travel for himself on at least 14 separate occasions. The locations included New York City, Houston and Austin, Texas, Detroit and Columbus, Ohio.

According to the Justice Department, each trip was motivated by personal and private financial matters, including Andell's attempt to accrue service time toward receipt of a Texas state pension for his work there as a judge.

On each trip, some of Andell's personal expenses were reimbursed by the government, and he received his salary for days he requested and received paid sick leave while working as a visiting judge in Texas.

Sentencing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is set for July 29.

Andell was appointed in September 2002 after serving as senior adviser to then-Education Secretary Rod Paige.

Prior to his time in Washington, Andell, a Democrat, was a judge for the 315th District Court of Texas, a juvenile court, and was a justice for the Texas' First Court of Appeals. As a juvenile court judge, Andell allowed video cameras into his courtroom for the taping of the television show Juvenile Justice, which aired in 1993 and 1994.

Corrupt Consular

Patricia Raikes, a former State Department employee and chief consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, pled guilty to receiving thousands of dollars in airplane tickets and hotel rooms in exchange for approved visa applications.

As a chief consular officer, Raikes was responsible for overseeing everything at the Lebanon embassy from the issuing of visas to the enforcement of embassy regulations.

Between 1999 and 2001, she approved tourist visas to individuals who were not eligible to receive the visas under the embassy's existing policies, according to the Justice Department. Before approving the visas, Raikes and her family members were given airline tickets and free hotel rooms totaling thousands of dollars.

More than 35 foreign businesspersons were given approved visas fraudulently because of Raikes.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 16 in the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia.