FDA's top crime investigator retires following whistleblower's accusations

Terry Vermillion is retiring from his post as the Food and Drug Administration's top criminal investigator following allegations that he used company services for personal work and used government funds to pay for advanced training for his "office mistress," among other claims of misconduct.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Vermillion, who has led the Office of Criminal Investigations for 18 years, stepped down Tuesday in the wake of a whistleblower's complaints to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

A Government Accountability Office report on the agency earlier this year, requested by Grassley, found the OCI suffered from lax oversight despite increased funding over the past few years. In September, after receiving the whistleblower's letter, Grassley wrote to the GAO calling the report on the OCI "less than stellar."

In the letter, Grassley cited the unnamed whistleblower's allegation that Vermillion was conducting business from his Virginia home; regularly held training sessions and conferences in Texas so he could visit his family; used support and IT staff to do personal work for him; and authorized the payment of government contracting training at George Washington University for an OCI employee described as his "office mistress."

The letter also asserts that Vermillion, who was a Secret Service Agent before joining the FDA, sanitized reports prepared by OCI's Office of Internal Affairs to remove derogatory information about Secret Service retirees then working at OCI.

Vermillion came under fire two years ago after House Republicans expressed concerns that OCI was putting too much emphasis on drug-abuse cases instead of pursing researchers and drugmakers engaged in illegal practices when applying for drug licensing.