FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CRM

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1998                                                                                                                      (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                              TDD (202) 514-1888




FORMER DEA BUDGET ANALYST INDICTED IN

SIX MILLION DOLLAR THEFT







	WASHINGTON, D.C. --	The Department of Justice announced today
that a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia has returned a
74-count indictment against a former Drug Enforcement
Administration budget analyst, charging him with the theft of $6
million from the DEA.

	The defendant, David S. Bowman, 57, of Arlington, Virginia,
who was a supervisory budget analyst at DEA's Drug Enforcement
Administration office in Arlington, Virginia, is alleged to have
stolen the money from the DEA between 1990 and 1997 through a
scheme involving the submission of hundreds of false and fraudulent
payment vouchers in the name of a sham company.  He had worked for
DEA for 22 years and left in April, 1997. 	

	Bowman's approval of the vouchers for payment caused them to
be processed by DEA's accounting department and resulted in
hundreds of government checks being sent to a post office box in
Rosslyn, Virginia, that was controlled by Bowman.  

	The indictment further alleged that Bowman retrieved the
checks from the post office box, laundered the proceeds of the
theft through local banks, and ultimately used the stolen funds to
pay for a wide range of personal expenditures for himself and his
family. 

	The expenditures, according to the indictment, included such
personal items as the purchase and renovation of homes for his
children, the lease and purchase of multiple automobiles, domestic
and overseas travel by family members, jewelry, collector coins,
art work, furniture, computers, stereo equipment, clothing and home
furnishings.

	The indictment charges Bowman with:  five counts of mail
fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341; one count of  

theft and conversion of government property and monies, in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641; 15 counts of concealment money
laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956; and 53 counts of
money laundering based on monetary transactions involving
criminally derived funds in excess of $10,000, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1957.  

	Finally, the indictment also seeks criminal forfeiture of all
property and monies involved in any of the money laundering
violations. 

	The case is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity Section
of the Department of Justice, with assistance from the Department's
Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section.  The investigation
was conducted jointly by the DEA's Office of Professional
Responsibility and the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal
Investigation Division. 

	An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. 
The defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which it will be the
government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.




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