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Fired Secret Service agent remains eligible for up to $2.1 million in taxpayer-funded pension payout
freebeacon.com ^ | April 20 2012 | Bill McMorris

Posted on 04/20/2012 1:37:49 PM PDT by NoLibZone

The disgraced Secret Service supervisors accused of engaging in a cocaine-fueled hooker party on the taxpayer dime will still cash in on lucrative taxpayer-funded pensions.

Three Secret Service agents tasked with protecting President Barack Obama have been terminated since it was revealed that they reportedly caroused with prostitutes and drugs in Colombia.

The Washington Post Thursday identified the two supervisors who have been forced out of the agency. Supervisor David Randall Chaney, 48, has been allowed to retire, while Greg Stokes, the assistant special agent in charge of the K-9 division, has been fired with cause. A third low-level officer has resigned his post.

Chaney will soon be cashing in on a pension worth between $47,000 and $61,000 per year, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

Despite the scandal, it will be nearly impossible to prevent him from collecting on the lucrative sum, according to Michael Spekter, an attorney specializing in defending federal benefit packages.

“Even if you’re fired for misconduct, unless you are found guilty of treason, you can get your retirement benefits that you’ve earned through your years of public service,” he said. “They don’t dock your pensions.”

Spekter has represented hundreds of federal employees during his 30-year career and has never seen a worker lose his pension.

Lawyers for the two agents told the Washington Post each man has between 17 and 18 years of service with the agency.

The Secret Service refused to comment on additional personnel matters. However, several federal law enforcement sources say that agents must have at least GS-14 seniority to qualify as supervisors—standards that also apply to the Secret Service.

Federal law enforcement supervisors working out of the D.C. metro area earn between $105,211 and $136,771. The positions qualify for pensions worth 2.5 percent of average highest salary over a period of three consecutive years, multiplied by years of service.

GS-14 supervisors receive pensions worth between $47,000 and $61,000 annually.

Since Chaney is retiring, he can collect on his pension almost immediately and could collect until age 83—the most recent average lifespan estimates for federal law enforcement officers, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Over his lifetime, he could receive between $1.65 and $2.15 million in retirement.

Stokes, the fired agent, also qualifies for his pension and will begin collecting at age 62, which would earn him up to $1.3 million over his expected lifetime.

The Washington Free Beacon estimate could be on the low end of the spectrum.

Once in retirement, the agents will continue to enjoy a Cadillac health insurance plan while paying minimal premiums. They will also enjoy annual cost of living adjustments, which increase pensions based upon the consumer price index. Retirees enjoyed a 3.6 percent pay bump in 2012.

Scandals involving government or political employees often raise questions about whether they are entitled to such generous taxpayer-funded benefits.

The debate last surfaced when former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with more than 50 criminal counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. Public outcry led the state pension board to review his benefits, though Sandusky will continue to collect state checks until his trial is complete.

Andrew G. Biggs, a former principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said pension benefits are viewed as money in the bank, regardless of who is holding the money.

“At some point you have to consider whether the employee earns this money or the employer does,” said Biggs, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “If you get fired in the private sector, you get to keep the money that’s in your 401(k).”

Frank Keegan, a pension expert at State Budget Solutions, said the employer-employee debate is complicated in the public sector.

“It’s the taxpayer’s money, not the government’s,” he said. “If people violate the public trust, taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay the pension costs for the rest of [the employee’s] life.”

Some state and local governments have passed laws that strip public officials and employees of their pensions if they are convicted of felonies or otherwise violate the public trust.

The most notable case to date has been that of the imprisoned former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. State Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whom the Democratic governor considered appointing to Barack Obama’s Senate seat, stripped Blagojevich of his $65,000 pension following his corruption conviction in 2011.

Beginning in 2019, however, Blagojevich will begin cashing $13,000 checks from the federal government for his congressional pension. He will also be halfway through his 14-year prison term.

The Secret Service is reviewing the conduct of nearly a dozen agents, as well as forcing those allegedly involved to undergo polygraph tests.

Biggs said the government’s exhaustive investigation digs at the root of the problem: office culture. He said the extensive guest list at the wild party—up to 20 military and Secret Service personnel and an equal number of prostitutes—demonstrates an agency culture akin to the General Service Administration’s lavish Las Vegas trip.

“If you want recourse, you don’t go after their pensions; you make it easier to fire federal employees,” he said. “I don’t know what happened over there, but if we give everybody their due process, we are going to get people paying attention.”

Agency officials have told congressional committees in the House and Senate that more heads are likely to roll—and take their lucrative pensions with them. This entry was posted in Federal Bureaucracy and tagged Secret Service. Bookmark the permalink.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News
KEYWORDS: cartagena; colombia; hookergate; nugent; secretservice; secretservicepension; secretservicescandal; tednugent
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1 posted on 04/20/2012 1:37:56 PM PDT by NoLibZone
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To: NoLibZone

Biggs said the government’s exhaustive investigation digs at the root of the problem: office culture. He said the extensive guest list at the wild party—up to 20 military and Secret Service personnel and an equal number of prostitutes—demonstrates an agency culture akin to the General Service Administration’s lavish Las Vegas trip.


2 posted on 04/20/2012 1:38:55 PM PDT by NoLibZone (I'm with Sarah- Anybody but Obama, because it's not always about me.)
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To: NoLibZone

2.1 Million dollars?

At $800.00 per high price hooker, lets see.. that’ll buy you...

Ahhh YOU do the math.

Either way. That’s a lot of quality Colombian hootchie-mamma!


3 posted on 04/20/2012 1:47:08 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

And Stokes was in charge of the K-9 division???

Was he in charge of Presidential snacks?

I see a strange doggy theme going on here...

;^)

(you can’t make this stuff up!)


4 posted on 04/20/2012 1:53:38 PM PDT by CT Hillbilly (Thoughts=Words=Actions=Destiny)
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To: NoLibZone
It's absurd that a pension like this is available to begin with from the government. Government workers are now generally paid more than the private sector and have far better benefits. With the number of government pensions available at a relatively young age, increased life spans, and growing number of federal employees, is it any wonder we're heading for (1)national bankruptcy or (2) a prolonged period of high taxation and job contraction? Add to this the fact that government employees are represented in collective bargaining and already have relative job security and you have a major financial disaster in the future. Congress needs to stop buying votes with other people's money and become good stewards of limited resources. Same goes for all state and local governments.
5 posted on 04/20/2012 1:54:24 PM PDT by Boomer One
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To: NoLibZone

F*** up and move up.


6 posted on 04/20/2012 1:57:30 PM PDT by boomop1
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To: NoLibZone

I think everyone would like a job with those benefits.


7 posted on 04/20/2012 2:11:34 PM PDT by rovenstinez
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To: NoLibZone; Berlin_Freeper; Hotlanta Mike; Silentgypsy; repubmom; HANG THE EXPENSE; Nepeta; ...


Over his lifetime, he could receive between $1.65 and $2.15 million in retirement.

Anyone who would risk his own life for our POS illegal president deserves a lot more than that!
8 posted on 04/20/2012 2:14:35 PM PDT by Brown Deer (Pray for 0bama. Psalm 109:8)
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To: NoLibZone

What’s money to the government?

Print what you need, or simply take it from the serfs.


9 posted on 04/20/2012 2:41:57 PM PDT by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: rovenstinez

Would you take a bullet for the current PRESidENT for SS pay?


10 posted on 04/20/2012 2:51:28 PM PDT by shove_it (just undo it)
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To: NoLibZone
and America takes another one in the........

11 posted on 04/20/2012 3:07:25 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: NoLibZone

Can anyone imagine, an elite government Secret Service advance team, getting drunk with foreign prostitutes, setting themselves up for blackmail, undermining and compromising security for the leader of the free world?

And then they they get lottery style government retirement pensions?

Spit*


12 posted on 04/20/2012 3:11:25 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: NoLibZone

Or at least his ex-wife will.


13 posted on 04/20/2012 3:17:59 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Boomer One

Couldn’t disagree more. Federal pensions are modest and well deserved by those who have devoted themselves to public service.


14 posted on 04/20/2012 4:09:46 PM PDT by Poundstone (A recent Federal retiree and proud of it!)
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To: dragnet2

Spit on you.


15 posted on 04/20/2012 4:31:18 PM PDT by Brown Deer (Pray for 0bama. Psalm 109:8)
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To: Poundstone

Modest my Aunt Fannie. They ought to shove the lot of you into Social Security with the rest of us. If its good enough for the people paying your salaries, it’s more than good enough for you parasites.


16 posted on 04/20/2012 4:43:27 PM PDT by Lurker (The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)
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To: NoLibZone

In recognition of the high salaries and pension benefits, there is no woman (i.e., prostitute) on earth that I would involve myself with that would threaten those bennies.


17 posted on 04/20/2012 5:57:15 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: shove_it

considering the rate at which they get shot at these days. It’s a heck of alot better than being a street cop.

Then again it’s probably because of them that more shots aren’t taken.


18 posted on 04/20/2012 9:29:21 PM PDT by Almondjoy
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To: Lurker

Most private sector jobs have a pension besides social security.


19 posted on 04/20/2012 9:41:17 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (The democratic party is the greatest cargo cult in history.)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

You’re FOS.


20 posted on 04/20/2012 11:54:52 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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