Former Fish and Wildlife Service Employee Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements in Disclosure Forms

A former senior employee of the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) pleaded guilty to making false statements in several disclosure forms to conceal approximately $300,000 of income that he received from an association that received grants and cooperative agreements from the FWS.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S Department of the Interior Deputy Inspector General Mary L. Kendall made the announcement.

Stephen M. Barton, 67, of Boise, Idaho, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush of the District of Idaho.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 24, 2017.

According to his plea agreement, Barton worked as the chief of administration and information management for FWS beginning in 2007.  Throughout his entire time at FWS, Barton also worked as treasurer for an association that received grants and cooperative agreements from FWS.

According to admissions made in connection with his plea agreement, Barton willfully and knowingly submitted false disclosure forms to FWS, including a request for ethics approval to engage in outside work or activity, a confidential financial disclosure report (OGE Form 450), and several confidential certificate of no new interests forms (OGE Form 450-A), in which he concealed approximately $300,000 of income that he received from the association between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2014.

The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General’s Eastern Division investigated the case.  Trial Attorney Victor R. Salgado of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section is prosecuting the case.