A former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs contracts administrator pleaded guilty Monday to federal tax charges and lying to investigators when he denied taking bribes from a parking lot operator at the VA’s Westside medical campus.
Ralph Tillman, 58, of Whittier, who resigned in 2014 after being confronted by VA investigators, admitted that he took well over $250,000 in “hush money” from Richard Scott, owner of Westside Services, which had a contract to operate public parking locations across the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Tillman entered a guilty plea before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner in downtown Los Angeles. He faces up to eight years behind bars when he is sentenced May 21.
Scott faces trial in October on charges of conspiracy and major fraud against the United States. The 58-year-old Santa Monica resident is suspected of bribing Tillman to help hide a scheme in which he allegedly failed to pay the VA more than $11 million generated by his parking lots at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus.
As part of his job, Tillman was responsible for managing contracts with “sharing partners,” such as Westside Services, which were required to share revenues with the agency. He admitted in his plea agreement that he first solicited a bribe from Scott in late 2003. About 18 months later, Scott began making monthly cash payments to Tillman, with Scott personally delivering the bribes in sealed FedEx envelopes, according to the plea document.
In return for the cash, Tillman failed to scrutinize annual statements from Scott that he knew contained inaccurately reported revenues and expenses, according to the document. 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 the parking lot operator in 2011 to continue the fraud and bribery scheme, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that during an interview with special agents from the VA’s Office of Inspector General in September 2014, Tillman lied when he denied accepting money or anything of value from Scott. But in his plea agreement, Tillman admitted taking $286,250 from Scott from 2003 through last year, even after his retirement.
The VA contract with Scott was terminated in early 2017 after the agency settled a lawsuit that challenged the VA’s use of its Westside campus for any purposes not specifically related to the care and housing of veterans.
—City News Service