The happy guy pictured above in Greece on either a vacation or "business trip" is Steven Snyder.
Last year, Steve was fired from his $130,000-per-year gig as executive director of the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System – and charged with six felonies – after he was apparently caught categorizing personal trips as business expenses, pocketing over $26,000 in bogus reimbursements.
Here are details of the allegations from a March 2018 article in The Oklahoman:
[Snyder] was fired after coming under criminal investigation because of an anonymous tip about his travel...
The tip was that "Snyder was engaged in excessive travel for personal business and being reimbursed with state funds," Agent Thomas Helm wrote in a request for a search warrant.
The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services conducted a travel claim analysis because of the tip.
It found he had submitted 21 travel claims for reimbursement between Feb. 7, 2015, and Sept. 29, 2017.
"Nine of the reimbursements, totaling $26,265, were found to have been made surrounding Snyder's personal travel," Helm wrote in the search warrant affidavit. "He ... would arrange for impromptu meetings with investment firms to justify travel expenses."
Trust me. I have no problem using "impromptu meetings," "R&D" and "travel articles" to justify writing off a "business" trip on your federal taxes, but doing it on your employer's dime? That is stealing, and it’s wrong. Obviously, state prosecutors agreed and made sure Snyder's punishment fit the crime.
Hahaha. Of course not. Earlier this week, prosecutors worked out a sweet plea deal for Snyder, who just happens to be a former assistant attorney general. Check this out:
Prosecutors have dismissed a fraud charge against the former head of the state agency that manages the $2.5 billion pension fund for municipal police officers in Oklahoma.
In exchange, Steven K. Snyder agreed to never work in state government again, to complete 200 hours of community service and to pay $5,867 in restitution to the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System.
The compromise with the attorney general's office is known as a deferred prosecution agreement. It was finalized Thursday. Afterward, the criminal charge against Snyder was expunged from court records.
The state owed Snyder 480 hours of accrued leave at the time of his termination but will pay him for only 440 hours because of evidence he was "unjustly enriched by failing to properly account for his absences," according to the agreement.
Yeah, take that Snyder! You only get to cash out 440 hours of accrued leave, as opposed to 480. You also can't work for the state again, so no more pocketing $26K in illegitimate reimbursements for you! That will show you!
This may seem like a weak punishment, and it is, but on a positive note, at least we get to shame Snyder for being the sleazebag who still emails pornography to his co-worker buddies:
The investigation also found Snyder sent inappropriate emails to a trustee on the pension fund's board in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. One of the 2012 emails had 43 photos of a nude woman in bed. Many of the photos showed the woman posing in sexual positions.
You can read more about that stuff here.
