Former ICE employee admits stealing from the government

A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee pleaded guilty to stealing money from the government and misusing a diplomatic passport.

Ahmed Adil Abdallat faces up to 10 years in federal prison for using an official diplomatic passport for personal travel to and from Jordan, in addition to collecting more than $100,000 in improper travel reimbursements from the U.S. government. Abdallat, a former supervisory intelligence research specialist for ICE in El Paso, Texas, is in federal custody pending sentencing.

The government issued Abdallat a diplomatic passport in 2007 for temporary work at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries. Abdallat admitted he used the passport for personal travel after he was assigned to the El Paso office and his work no longer required overseas travel on a diplomatic passport. He also submitted 13 travel vouchers in 2009 and 2010 containing fictitious charges for travel from El Paso to Washington. He received more than $116,000 in reimbursements from the government.

Abdallat cost the government between $70,000 and $120,000, according to estimates.

Also in October, a former Customs and Border Protection manager at Midway International Airport in Chicago begins his prison sentence for taking bribes from foreign restaurant employees seeking to extend their stay in the United States. William Mann received bribes totaling $28,500 from several restaurant employees and their spouses to alter a law enforcement database and falsify immigration and travel documents allowing them to illegally extend their stay in the country.

In April, a human resources employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency was charged with embezzling nearly $150,000 from the government.