Ex-Treasury employee used taxpayer resources to see prostitutes, probe finds
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}* FILE ** Satin , 25, a prosititue in Washington, talks with outreach workers from Helping Individual Prositutes Survive (HIPS), while they sit in their van in this March 1, 2002, file photo in Washington. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, will propose on June 28, 2006, to allow the Internal Revenue Service to chase after pimps and sex traffickers for failing to file employment forms and withold taxes for girls under their command. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (AP)
Add the Treasury Department to the list of federal agencies whose employees have allegedly solicited and seen prostitutes.
Newly disclosed documents show that a now-retired human resources specialist with Treasury was accused of meeting prostitutes on "three separate occasions" -- and using his government-issued travel card to buy the hotel rooms for their rendezvous.
The documents, from the department's internal investigations arm, were posted online by the site governmentattic.org. They were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The documents detail an array of alleged misconduct by department employees, ranging from sexual harassment to conflict-of-interest problems. The prostitution incident, in 2010, occurred well before the highly publicized prostitution scandal involving members of the U.S. military and Secret Service in Colombia earlier this year.
According to the official investigation report, the "human resources specialist" was accused in August 2010 of using department resources "to arrange sexual encounters with women advertising on Craigslist."
The investigation found the specialist used government resources to view erotic sites every week and used his official email to communicate with women "offering a variety of adult/erotic services" -- and later admitted to doing so.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the investigation, the ex-employee said he met them on three occasions, and had arranged to meet another prostitute in Atlanta, but ultimately broke off that encounter. He paid $100 as a "cancellation fee."
Though the office found the employee, who worked in the federal government for 36 years, violated rules against "disgraceful conduct" -- not to mention laws against prostitution -- the U.S. attorney's office in D.C. declined to prosecute since the case didn't involve "underage prostitutes or human trafficking."
The name of the employee was redacted. He retired in October 2010.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Treasury Department has not responded to a request for comment. The Office of Inspector General, though, confirmed to Fox News that the office wrote the documents that were posted on governmentattic.org.
In another case, an employee was cited for being intoxicated at a college football game in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2009. The report said the employee, who also was not named, was witnessed being "extremely disorderly" when he was told he could not enter the stadium. Officers on the scene were apparently "close to arresting" him, but didn't because they thought he was a law enforcement officer, according to one witness.