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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nAccording to the Justice Department<\/a>, Ralph Tillman, a 58-year-old contract officer for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in Los Angeles, California, has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and filing a false federal tax return. He was taking bribes from Richard Scott, the owner of Westside Services LLC (WSS), which for years had a contract to operate parking lots across the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VA GLAHS). Tillman delivered over $11 million in bribes to Scott and pocketed a quarter million bucks for himself.<\/p>\n As part of his duties at the VA, Tillman was responsible for managing contracts with \u201csharing partners,\u201d such as WSS, which were required to perform services for the VA and share revenues with the agency. In his plea agreement, Tillman admitted that he approached Scott in late 2003 and solicited a bribe to pay for a family matter. One to two years later, Scott began making monthly cash payments to Tillman, with Scott personally delivering the bribes in sealed FedEx envelopes, according to the plea agreement.<\/p>\n In return for the cash bribes, Tillman admitted in the plea agreement that he failed to scrutinize annual statements from WSS that Tillman knew contained inaccurately reported revenues and expenses. Tillman also admitted that he knew Scott was defrauding the VA out of millions of dollars, and that he entered into a contract extension with WSS in 2011 to continue the fraud and bribery scheme.<\/p>\n During an interview with special agents with VA\u2019s Office of Inspector General in September 2014, Tillman denied accepting money or anything of value from Scott. This conduct forms the basis of the false statements charge.<\/p>\n Tillman specifically admitted that he took $286,250 from Scott from 2003 through last year. According to the plea agreement, Tillman continue to receive money from Scott after his retirement and these payments constituted \u201chush money.\u201d<\/p>\n Tillman failed to report the bribe payments on his federal tax returns, and he agreed to plead guilty to subscribing to a false tax return for the 2014 tax year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Scott pleaded not guilty and faces a trial in early February, while Tillman pleaded guilty and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years.<\/p>\n