[Infowarrior] - Fugitive found working at DHS

[Richard Forno]

(How's this for hiding in plain sight? And what does this say about  
the DHS internal controls to ensure it hires *cough* folks we would  
WANT to protect this country? --rf)

Fugitive is discovered at Homeland Security
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/126032730518280.xml&coll=1
A New Jersey fugitive wanted on insurance fraud charges since 2007 was  
working for the immigration division of the Department of Homeland  
Security in Georgia, despite a nationwide alert for her arrest, Essex  
County prosecutors said yesterday.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Atlanta was  
unaware that Tahaya Buchanan, 39, formerly of Newark, was being sought  
on a 2007 indictment on charges she staged the theft of her Range  
Rover in Newark for an insurance payout, said Paul Loriquet of the  
Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

He said the USCIS continued to remain unaware of the criminal case  
after Buchanan was arrested on July 9 in DeKalb County, Ga., by a  
traffic officer who noticed a warrant for her arrest was issued in  
December 2007 by a New Jersey judge and posted a month later on the  
National Crime Information Center.

Yesterday, Buchanan's supervisors at the CIS office in Atlanta said  
they did not know about the criminal charges, despite the fact  
Buchanan remained in a Georgia jail for a week after her arrest. On  
Monday, she pleaded guilty to one charge of insurance fraud, for which  
she faces three months of probation.

"It's amazing they couldn't find her. Good Lord," said Kevin Kerns,  
the office chief of staff at USCIS where Buchanan still works as an  
analyst.

Ana Santiago, a spokeswoman for the USCIS, said it is still checking  
into the case and did not have information available as to whether the  
office regularly checks its employee list against national criminal  
warrants.

"The USCIS is looking into this matter. USCIS has zero tolerance for  
any type of employee misconduct or criminal activity," she added.

Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Morris said his detectives  
believe Buchanan was working for Homeland Security while still living  
in New Jersey in 2007, and that she may have transferred to the  
Georgia office while under investigation. But Morris said his office  
is baffled as to why the warrant for her arrest, placed on a national  
alert system, did not prompt Homeland Security to notice that one of  
its employees was wanted on a criminal warrant.

"We found it surprising, alarming that an employee of the Department  
of Homeland Security is a fraudster, and we do not understand how she  
could have remained employed there with an open criminal warrant for  
her arrest remaining on the interstate system without being  
discovered," said Morris.

Buchanan was indicted in November 2007 on a charge of second-degree  
insurance fraud. A Superior Court judge in Newark issued a warrant for  
her arrest a month later when she failed to appear for a court  
hearing. The warrant was entered on the National Crime Information  
Center system on Jan. 8, 2008, notifying law enforcement agencies  
nationwide she was a fugitive, said Loriquet.

Buchanan admitted on Monday that she falsely reported her car stolen  
in March 2005 and filed an insurance claim. A month after the report,  
the Range Rover was found by police in an Irvington garage owned by  
Buchanan's aunt after the garage caught fire, said Morris. Buchanan's  
insurance company launched a probe and eventually denied her insurance  
claim. A criminal probe was later opened.

Brian Murray may be reached at bmurray at starledgercom or (973)-392-4153.