Married former ICE agents charged with theft from federal agency
By Daily News Wire Services
Posted: 09/10/2010 01:38:12 PM PDT
Updated: 09/10/2010 01:41:21 PM PDT


LOS ANGELES — A retired special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his wife, who also worked for the federal agency in Los Angeles, were arrested today on charges of stealing from the government and lying to investigators about it.

An indictment handed down by a Los Angeles federal grand jury alleges that Frank Eugene Johnston, 51, and his 53-year-old wife, Taryn, stole almost $600,000 that she received in salary and benefits from ICE, even though she had done virtually no work for the agency in years.

Frank Johnston retired from ICE in August 2009 after 31 years in federal law enforcement. His wife previously worked as an immigration enforcement agent and then as an intelligence research specialist, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, the alleged scheme dates back to 2002, when Frank Johnston became his wife's supervisor at what was then known as the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, assigning her to an isolated workplace blocks from the agency's main Los Angeles office.

Soon after, Taryn Johnston stopped going to work and her husband rubber- stamped her time sheets, which "frequently also claimed premium pay for overtime and holiday hours," according to the indictment filed this week in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

As part of the scheme, the couple asked the only other employee at the satellite office to log into Taryn Johnston's work e-mail account, review
her e- mails and forward some to her personal account, prosecutors allege.
Frank Johnston is charged with federal wire fraud, false statements and theft of government property, specifically $582,281.27 in salary and benefits paid to his wife by INS and ICE for work she did not perform, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"Our newly re-formed Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section provides a center where experienced prosecutors can focus on these types of cases involving government officials who abuse their positions of power," said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.

"Employees of any governmental agency, especially a law enforcement agency, have a special relationship with the people of the United States, and any abuse of that trust demands a thorough investigation and, when necessary, a criminal prosecution," he said.

The indictment charges Taryn Johnston with lying to ICE investigators by telling them that she had worked the hours for which she was paid. She is also charged with lying to investigators when she denied giving an ICE agent her computer log-in information so he could access her work e-mail account and forward messages to her personal account.

Along with wire fraud, Frank Johnston is charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements for allegedly giving bogus information to both a Justice Department prosecutor and a federal judge in Florida.

In that instance, Johnston allegedly said a convicted felon was providing "ongoing cooperation" in two criminal investigations being conducted in Los Angeles. According to the indictment, the convicted felon was not actually providing any information to investigators, and the false statements caused a delay in the start of a prison term for the felon.

If convicted of all charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 465 years in federal prison, and his wife would face a maximum 10-year term, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

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