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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2019 12:47:15 GMT
Ex-customs agent gets house arrest for lying about inspecting hundreds of ships in Portsmouth Did a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent let invasive species into the country?
Maybe. But because of the man's "sheer laziness" we will never know, according to federal prosecutors.
Carl James Jr., who no longer works for the agency, was sentenced Thursday to 90 days house arrest and ordered to complete 200 hours community service.
Prosecutors had asked for about one week in jail while the defense requested only probation.
According to court documents, James, 38, of Chesapeake, was the only agricultural specialist assigned to Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth. It was his job to inspect vessels for invasive species, contaminants or diseases that could harm the agricultural or natural resources of the United States.
James’ bosses launched an internal investigation in November 2017 after he filed a report indicating he’d inspected the OOCL Chongqing, a container ship. The report listed an inaccurate email address, and when another customs official contacted the ship to get a working one, he learned it had never been inspected.
The report also listed the wrong number of crew members on board and said the inspection was conducted more than six hours after the ship had left port. The chief officer’s signature also did not look right, documents said.
From there, CBP officials started to look at all of James' inspections.
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