NUKE LAB FRAUDSTERS COP A PLEA

The men who helped start the cur­rent wave of scan­dals at Los Alamos pled guilty yes­ter­day to charges of con­spir­acy and mail fraud, the AP reports.
Peter Bussolini, 66, and Scott Alexander, 42, are both fac­ing 12 to 18 months in jail for mak­ing fishy pur­chases with tax­payer money. I mean, really fishy — gas grills, CB radios, pic­nic tables, all for a “gov­ern­ment emer­gency com­mand cen­ter,” sup­pos­edly.
Ex-​​police chiefs Glenn Walp and Steve Doran were brought in to inves­ti­gate Bussolini, Alexander, and other slip­pery lab char­ac­ters. But Walp and Doran were fired, once they started uncov­er­ing wide­spread fraud.
That got the atten­tion of Congress, and the press. Hearings were held of Capitol Hill. And, even­tu­ally, all of the lab’s top man­agers were forced out.
But the renewed scrutiny didn’t end there. Security lapses and safety breaches kept com­ing to light over and over again. Eventually, the lab had to be largely shut down a reboot, of sorts, to get employ­ees to start tak­ing reg­u­la­tions seri­ously. That restart, begun in July, still isn’t com­pletely done.
Anyway, here’s a par­tial list of some of the things Bussolini and Alexander bought on your dime:

5 Genesis Gold bar­beque gas grills
1 19″ Panasonic television/​VCR com­bi­na­tion set
4 Cobra 75 WV CB radios
3 30 Watt solar pan­els
3 auto­matic dou­ble gate open­ers w/​ remotes
2 Wyoming saws
8 pic­nic tables
4 sage-​​colored Cabela Deluxe Arm Chair
38 chamois shirts
15 pairs of thin­su­late gloves
152 assorted knives, includ­ing 8 “SOG M37 Seal Pup Knives“
13 motor­cy­cle hel­mets
12 head­lamps
5 ULT Command Center mon­i­tors
24 camp­ing lanterns
4 olive drab ATV cov­ers
1 Carhart XXXL coat
3 pair New Balance hik­ing boots
15 sleep­ing bags
4 sleep­ing pads
4 reclin­ing loungers
4 “Portable Buddy Heaters“
6 parkas
5 “Portable Catalytic Heaters“
4 “Pocket Chain Saws“
4 “Deluxe Ratchet Pruners“
6 knife-​​sharpeners
6 Magellan Map 330M GPS units
8 pocket & micro torches
3 gore­tex jack­ets
4 stand-​​up heaters
3 pairs of “Polarized Lenses“
4 Rangesafe Ear Muffs
4 “Ultimate 10 Hearing Protectors”

October 19th, 2004 | Los Alamos and Labs | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.