Former Background Investigator Denied Security Clearance

There was a lot of buzz a few years ago when the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Justice cracked down on contractor background investigators who were falsifying reports of investigation and collecting payments for work that was not done. A recent Department of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case caught my eye because it involved a former background investigator who was denied a security clearance by the DoD and subsequently appealed. Here are the highlights.

The applicant was a former contractor field background investigator in 2017 until she resigned in 2021. Afterward her resignation it was discovered she was under investigation by the Office of the Inspector General when it came to light, she had submitted placeholders with the IT Help Desk for her assigned work so that it would look like she was completing her work on time. Further reviews disclosed she falsified interviews and other checks and was “ghostwriting” reports. This led to the agency decision to rework all the investigations she had submitted as completed, which ended up costing the agency an additional 164K.

At her appeal hearing the applicant denied she had falsified any work but did admit to not following the proper processes when submitting her casework. She claimed that she became overwhelmed as a single mother during COVID and just could not deal with the work environment anymore, so she resigned. She did not disclose she had been suspended prior to her resignation, and that it was an oversight. The judge in her appeal noted despite her denial about falsifying work, the mountain of evidence indicating she had in fact done so left a lot of doubt about her credibility and honesty – clearance denied.