I Am The Messenger Part 2

[Magin Sriubas]

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What I witnessed that day was the worst case of abject neglect carried out by a department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Vocational Rehabilitation (VR&E) employee to date. Little did I know how bad things were to get over the next year. We had hoped this was just an isolated case involving one dysfunctional VA employee, then the complaints kept coming in. "Dan, why is the North Charleston VR&E office telling me I can't use my benefits to get my welders license?", said one Marine. Another said:

The pattern of alleged abuses appeared to stem around this particular regional office and its insistence that the combat veterans attain a dead end, low wage job rather than the veteran's desired intention of attaining the required education to attain gainful employment in a career of their choice. Worse, it was not just one VR&E employee, but several. One by one the complaints reiterated the same issues.

Our agency then began to seek answers from the office director, and were ignored. So we began climbing the chain of command until we got ahold of the VR&E Regional Director, Dr. Paul Knight (Pictured Left). He quickly dismissed our concerns, professional observations and complaints and defended the actions and decisions of his staff. He even went further with an implied threat: "Be careful, you don't want the VA taking a look at your file, it could open things up." A threat he later made good on.

As a result, we sought out his direct supervisor, the Columbia S.C. Regional Director, Ms. Leanne Weldin. Contacting her was a challenge since she has no publicly listed phone or email address and Dr. Knight was obstructing our efforts to obtain her contact information. This led our agency to assist our aggrieved combat veterans in compiling formal complaints for submission to our Congressional leaders as well as formal complaints to the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Eventually, we did make contact with Ms. Weldin (Pictured Right), following numerous attempts through various other agencies (White House Complaints Hotline, VA Ombudsman and others). As the Congressional complaints worked their way through the VA, Ms. Weldin was finally accessible for a phone call. During our conversation she gave the impression that she was empathetic to our combat veterans' complaints. In fact, she even set up a meeting between her, our vets, and the VR&E staff at the North Charleston location on June 28th, 2018. In the meantime, more complaints had come in from other combat veterans:

During our June 28th, 2018 meeting several of our aggrieved veterans, one by one, articulated their struggles and frustrations with several of the VR&E staff counselors as well as Dr. Knight. We were able to identify the causes of the errors and issues while also providing a pathway for solutions.

One proposed solution, was that our agency would voluntarily conduct a satisfaction survey of that location by providing the following link for distribution to their serviced veterans at that location ( ). Ms Weldin was not agreeable to sending out the link due to "policy and privacy" concerns. However, she did support our efforts and looked forward to the results.

On July 6th, the survey went live and with the help of a July 9th, 2018 local news story here: the data began to come in. None of it was good. On July 26th, 2018 the completed survey was provided to Ms. Weldin, POTUS, our Congressional members, the Secretary of the VA, and made publicly available here.

The survey details the systemic issues at this location. Veterans reported feeling that neither their goals nor career objectives were being respected. Additionally, that the counselors were using fear tactics to dissuade veterans from using the benefits towards a college degree program. Telling veterans that they were putting their service connected disability compensation at risk if they went to college. Veterans reported feeling humiliated upon leaving that office, discouraged and without optimism. They pointed out how the VA's VR&E promotional video was hardly in line with how they were treated by counselors, Robbert Moffitt and Gerald Sealey (pictured left) who were often referred to as very condescending, unprofessional and more eager to get the veterans to the S.C. Works Job service than through college. Veterans further detailed the lack of communication they received when complaining to the locations director, Lurlene Scott. Complaints over the lack of timeliness in processing claims and payouts amongst those currently enrolled in the program were also expressed. But rather than working to formulate solutions to these problems, they began a retaliation effort against me and our agency.

On July 10th, (four days after the survey went live and one day after the news story broke), a VA employee filed a formal complaint through the Office of Inspector General (OIG) (pictured below) claiming that I was a fraud. The complaint attempted to shed false light on my injuries and Operation Vet Fit, calling it an unclaimed source of income and calling into question how I am able to exercise and play golf with my combined injuries. The complaint quickly resulted in a full blown investigation requiring that I be re-evaluated for my injuries, forcing me to undergo multiple repeat psychological, neuropsychological, back, head, knee, and nerve conductance evaluations. I was forced to either comply with the scheduled evals or lose my VA benefits and face criminal prosecution for fraud.

Immediately concerned that this was an act of retaliation I reached out, via email to Leanne Weldin to inquire who originated this complaint. She was not quick to reply and ignored several emails until she finally attempted to send me an encrypted email that I was unable to open. The email, once sent as plain text on August 8th, 2018 assured me that "there was, and still is, no malicious or retaliatory intent by any VA employee as a result of your concerns regarding Charleston VR&E or any other reason." Still not convinced of the integrity of her assurance, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the VA OIG requesting the originating source of the false complaint of fraud that had been made against me on July 10th. This request resulted in a VA OIG-FOIA denial letter under a new exemption that excludes the release of information currently under investigation. As a result, I would have to wait for the investigation to conclude. In the mean time, the Columbia SC Regional VA office scheduled five separate reevaluation appointments for weekends, holidays and even on September 11th while our city was under evacuation orders ahead of a hurricane.

I showed up to each appointment as directed and underwent the forced re-evaluations. Interestingly, I had been provided room numbers that were incorrect, and arrived for appointments that had been cancelled without me being notified. By September 17th, 2018 I had completed each of the forced re-evaluations.

That same day I also received a letter from Leanne Weldin (pictured left) which accused me of "attempting to harass a VA employee" and went further to claim I had been "accusatory towards the VA". The irony of the date of this letter corresponding with the date that I attended my final (fifth) forced re-evaluation (September 17th, 2018) is certainly worth further inspection.

As a result I contacted my Senator and the VA White House Complaints line to inform them of this development. Specifically, that the Columbia, SC Regional Director, Leanne Weldin had falsely accused me, in writing, of committing a felony. Further that she did so on the day I completed all forced reevaluations. This development has since become part of a larger investigation that is ongoing through another newly established federal agency. The picture was becoming much more clear, but the outcome of the OIG investigation against me still hung over my head. If it was not Leanne Weldin or Dr Paul Knight, then who? I'd have to wait until the investigation concluded to find out.

On October 1st, 2018 the OIG closed the investigation (Pictured below) finding no fraud while highlighting the contributions of our agency and the medical re-evaluation evidence supporting both my activities and those of our agency. While this served as vindication and provided some relief, we're still seeking to learn who was ultimately responsible for the initiating complaint which now encompassed our allegations of retaliation and intimidation coupled with gross waste and abuse of VA resources.

Since I had just been re-evaluated a year prior, and not scheduled for another evaluation for another year, we are also seeking the financial cost associated with each of the medical re-evaluations I was forced to undergo, as well as the overall cost of the entire investigation from a stand-point of wasted man-hours and resources which could've been directed towards more productive activities.

It is our allegation, made in good faith, based on the evidence of this case that the information provided to Ms. Weldin and Dr. Paul Knight through our survey, Congressional complaints, and meetings has exposed a systemic problem within the Columbia, SC Region. These specific and critical observations are well articulated in the survey report discussion in pages 24-43 which has been made public.

Further, were I to have not shown up to any of the five forced re-evaluations, I would have faced federal fraud charges which would've effectively destroyed the credibility of our entire survey report detailing the abuses we witnessed. Additionally, Ms. Weldin's September 17th, 2018 letter falsely accusing me of a federal crime against a VA employee appears to have been a desperate attempt to either insight an angry or threatening reply from me or to support her baseless allegations of harassment when she realized I had completed all evaluations and that those evaluations supported my injuries and activities.

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