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Air Force veteran Kevin Rumph Jr., 41, was working for the Veterans Affairs’ Prosethetic Department in Fort McPherson, Georgia in 2013 when he started making unauthorized medical equipment purchases using a VA-issued purchase card, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
By 2021, Rumpf had cost the VA almost $2 million, after not only fraudulently purchasing Continuous Positive Airway Pressure supplies (CPAP) but then reselling those supplies to a vendor in Ohio for his own personal gain, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, the Fairburn, Georgia resident had been working for the VA since 2012 as a purchasing agent for the VA. Rumph’s duties included handling prosthetic forms and prescriptions from physicians, therapists, patients and patient representatives.
These forms included purchase orders for a wide variety of prosthetic and sensory aids devices, medical supplies, and durable medical equipment that Rumph would also coordinate the delivery of through contractors by using his VA-issued purchase card.
While Rumph did carry out legitimate orders, court documents reveal that he also used his position and government-issued card to add his own orders from a CPAP supplier in Alabama. Rumph would then re-sell those devices — used to treat obstructive sleep apnea — for his own financial gain.
“It is disappointing when someone entrusted to help care for our veterans instead steals from them,” U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine said in the press release. “As a veteran, Rumph should have been a compassionate servant, not a thief.”
Rumph was sentenced Dec. 1 by U.S. District Court Judge Michael L. Brown after pleading guilty Aug.16.
He was ordered to pay $2,041,733.62 in restitution and sentenced to 27 months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release.
The case against Rumph was investigated by the VA’s Office of Inspector General and prosecuted by Deputy Chief of the Complex Frauds Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Huber.
Rachel is a Marine Corps veteran, Penn State alumna and Master’s candidate at New York University for Business and Economic Reporting.