The ex-watchdog who oversaw the Department of Homeland Security pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing propriety software and sensitive databases from his old job for his private business.
“Ethics Policies & Training”
Charles K. Edwards, 61, served in the Obama administration as the Acting Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security between February 2008 until December 2013. He served before that time as the inspector general for the U.S. Postal Service.
Inspectors general work as a watchdog for government agencies, intended to act independently of them to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. Among other topics, Edwards testified in Congress in May 2012 about criminal activity and misconduct by Homeland Security employees, particularly those working for subagencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A C-SPAN broadcast of that testimony captioned Edwards’s testimony as about “Homeland Security Ethics Policies & Training.”
On March 5, 2020, however, the Department of Justice announced that it had been watching the watchdog. Prosecutors unsealed a grand jury’s indictment on that date alleging that Edwards stole government software and databases for a company that he founded after his life in public service: Delta Business Solutions, Inc., located in Maryland.