FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Friday, July 25, 2014
Former U.S. House of Representatives Employee Pleads Guilty to Theft of Government Property
Brian Prokes, 28, a former office manager in the U.S. House of Representatives, pleaded guilty today for causing the House of Representatives to pay more than $19,000 in excess salary and unauthorized travel expenses, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
According to court documents, Prokes worked as the office manager for a U.S. Congressman. Prokes’s responsibilities included transmitting salary and bonus information to the House of Representatives’ Office of Payroll and Benefits in order to adjust the pay of employees in the Congressman’s office. Prokes admitted that, between April 2012 and March 2013, he submitted unauthorized paperwork to the Office of Payroll and Benefits to pay himself larger salary and bonus than he had been approved to receive.
In addition, Prokes admitted that, between February 2012 and December 2012, he charged unauthorized, personal travel expenses for himself and an acquaintance to a government credit card used by the Congressman’s office. The excess salary payments and unauthorized travel expenses amounted to more than $19,000.
Prokes, of Atlanta, Georgia, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 14, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in the District of Columbia.
This case was investigated by the FBI. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Kevin O. Driscoll and Sean F. Mulryne of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.
