Former CASIS Employee Indicted For Charging For Prostitutes on Travel Reports
Examining Staff and Board Member Salaries at CASIS, earlier posting (2015)
“Note: CASIS Chief Economist Resnick recently left CASIS. CASIS employees were told that this was in connection with a NASA OIG investigation into travel accounting and that there would be additional questions about this issue.”
Former ISS National Lab executive indicted for allegedly ‘expensing’ prostitutes, Florida Today
“Federal prosecutors have charged a former executive of the Brevard County-based nonprofit that runs the International Space Station’s national laboratory for using government funds to pay for escort services, and for falsifying tax returns. Charles Resnick, served as chief economist for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, which is primarily funded by about $15 million annually from NASA. According to a 10-count indictment filed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa, Resnick created phony receipts and other documents when filing expense reports that hid spending on prostitutes and escorts during trips to Europe and New York between 2011 and 2015.”
Statement on behalf of CASIS (ISS U.S. National Laboratory) Regarding Resnick Indictment
“CASIS is fully aware of the recent charges brought against former employee Charles Resnick. In 2015 CASIS immediately cut ties with Mr. Resnick upon discovering his actions, which were in clear violation of company policies and procedures. We immediately launched a full investigation into Mr. Resnick’s travel and accounting practices resulting in referral to the NASA OIG. CASIS has fully cooperated with the OIG’s investigation and will continue to do so. We will not have any further comment while this criminal matter is pending.”- Joseph Vockley, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer
Keith’s note: FYI now that CASIS has changed its name to the “ISS National Laboratory” all of the news stories will be saying things such as “Former ISS National Lab executive indicted for allegedly ‘expensing’ prostitutes”. Great PR for the space station, right? NASA should have thought this name change thing through when CASIS first proposed it. Oh wait. CASIS just did it on their own.
– CASIS Is Changing Its Name By Pretending That Its Not, earlier post
– CASIS Now Has An Official Fictitious Name – NASA Watch, earlier post
– CASIS Is Changing Its Name But It Missed A Few Things (update), earlier post
– Why Is CASIS Making Itself Disappear?, earlier post
Oh yes, NASA warned CASIS about their branding activities but CASIS did not listen.
31 March 2016 NASA letter to CASIS
“We would advice caution in the lending of the ISS National Lab brand (via your “Space is in it” certification) too freely; care must be taken to ensure that research performed on the ISS has actually influenced product development in advance of awarding the certification. Failure to do so weakens the brand and may lend an air of being nonserious in our mutual quest to fully utilize the ISS as a national lab.”
The scandal is an unfair yet perfect symbolism for the ISS program. More than 42 billion dollars will be spent on ISS from 2016 to 2030.
GW Bush wanted ISS splashed in 2016 to divert ISS spending to manned Moon and Beyond. Obama saved ISS until 2024 and stopped manned Moon. Now Senator Cruz and others want ISS saved until 2030.
Is manned space exploration getting its money’s worth from ISS?
I almost think that they selected CASIS for commercialization of ISS in order to ensure it would fail and they wouldn’t have to bother with commercial research anymore. I think NASA used a similar strategy on X-33 by picking the entry with the least chance of succeeding.
It really is a bad sign when you hear a bad joke, and then, a few years later, read about it actually happening in a newspaper. I was once eating with some colleagues during a conference, when a newly hired post-doc asked what he could spend his per diem on (he was wondering about the beer.) Someone else from our lab told him he could spend it on anything he wanted. Hotels and travel are accounted for separately, but the per diem is for all other expenses. He joked that you could even spend it on prostitutes. (You can’t, or on anything else illegal.) I told him he was that wasn’t actually true, and he shouldn’t be give the post-doc the wrong impression. Now someone actually did that? Really?
I still don’t understand how he could be caught, exactly. Presumably he didn’t actually turn in an expense report with a line labeled “prostitutes”. Your personal bank account launders all the money, so if paid for out of pocket, there would be no traceability.
Well, the Florida Today article said he “created phony receipts and other documents when filing expense reports…” Different institutions have different requirements for expense reports. Some require nothing for per diem, some require receipts for everything, some only require receipts for items over a specific cost. It sounds like he is accused of expensing enough inappropriate charges that his institution’s rules required documentation, which he allegedly forged.
At times I ask myself if is possible that people can be that unbelievably dumb. Sadly, when things happen that make me ask that question, the answer is yes.
Welcome to the internet.
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