Contractor with 200K Salary Loses Clearance Job After Filing Bankruptcy 4x

Paying your mortgage and monthly bills using credit cards is a recipe for disaster, especially if you are only making the minimum required payments. The interest rates alone will cause the debts to snowball out of control. This happened to a security clearance applicant who had his clearance eligibility denied by the DoD due to concerns regarding financial, personal and criminal conduct. Here are the highlights of his case and appeal to the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals.

The applicant has been a firefighter for 30 years and recently got a DoD contractor position that required a security clearance. Starting in 2014, he admitted that he and his wife started overspending and buying things they could not afford, including putting one of their children in a private school. He also fell behind on paying his federal/state income taxes and his mortgage. Despite making $200,000 a year in salary, he continued to fall behind, started using credit cards to pay the bills and racked up over $220,000 in delinquent debt. He filed for bankruptcy four times, but they were dismissed because he did not keep up with the payments. As of the hearing, he told the judge he was getting help from his co-workers to pay the monthly bills and they were also donating annual and sick leave, so he would keep getting paid.

This was a slam dunk case for the judge, seeing as the applicant had done nothing toward taking positive steps to address his delinquent debts. Additionally, he was less than honest during his security interview with the background investigator about being involved in domestic violence incidents with his now ex-wife. He was denied clearance eligibility based on unmitigated financial and personal conduct concerns. You can read the case summary here.