Publicly Released: February 19, 2020

This Lead Inspector General (Lead IG) report to the United States Congress on Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS) is the 19th quarterly report detailing the overseas contingency operation. The report summarizes significant events involving OFS and describes completed, ongoing, and planned Lead IG and partner agency oversight work. This report covers the period from October 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019.

As required by the IG Act, the Lead IG is reporting on Operation Yukon Journey, an overseas contingency operations designated by the Secretary of Defense in February 2018. The Secretary removed the overseas contingency operation designation in May 2019. This operation, which seeks to degrade al Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated terrorists in the Middle East, is classified. The Lead IG report is classified as a result. We have provided the report to the federal agencies and congressional committees.

Carmen Malone, Deputy Assistant IG for Audit at DoD OIG, details the latest Pentagon audit results, and the outlook for future audits with Federal News Network. Click here for audio.

The Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Inspector General and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General plan to begin the subject joint audit in February 2020. The objective of this joint audit is to determine the extent to which the actions taken by the DoD and VA in acquiring and implementing a common, commercial electronic health record system and supporting architecture will achieve interoperability among the Departments and with external health care providers.

The objective of our evaluation was to determine whether the DoD and its law enforcement organizations (LEOs) complied with Federal law and DoD policy for submitting the following DoD criminal history information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for entry into its criminal history databases.

We plan to begin the subject evaluation in February 2020. The objective of this evaluation is to determine whether U.S. Central Command is prepared to defend critical assets within its area of responsibility against missile and unmanned aircraft system threats. We will consider suggestions from management for additional or revised objectives.

U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel yesterday sentenced Saul Eady, age 36, of Los Angeles, California, to four years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain goods using what appeared to be a military e-mail address, but was actually a registered Yahoo e-mail address. Judge Hazel also entered an order requiring Eady to forfeit and to pay restitution in the full amount of the victim's losses, which is $640,172.80. Eady has been detained since his arrest in October 2018.

United States Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced today that Dr. William Choi and three companies he owned have paid the United States $2.35 million to resolve civil allegations that Dr. Choi received illegal kickbacks from distributors of spinal implant devices that he used in surgeries he performed.

A former government contractor was sentenced to 57 months in prison today for his role in carrying out a $3.7 million scheme to defraud at least 35 subcontractors located across the United States. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott of the Eastern District of California, Special Agent in Charge David A. House of the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General's (DOI-OIG} Western Region Office of Investigations, Special Agent in Charge Ray Park of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command's (Army CID) Major Procurement Fraud Unit, Pacific Fraud Fiel Office, Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBl's Sacramento Division, Special Agent in Charge Jason Hein of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations' (Air Force OSI) Office of Procurement Fraud Unit, and Special Agent in Charge Brian Denny of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's (DCIS) Western Field Office made the announcement.