VA Executives

VA Exec Demotions Reversed Due To VA Failure

VA Exec

Benjamin KrauseVA failure to competently persecute a relatively clear fraud claim against Diana Rubens and Kim Graves has resulted in a reversal of VA’s recent decision to demote the women.

This is not the first time. VA failed to adequately prosecute director Sharon Helman, fired director of Phoenix VAMC. VA lawyers failed to provide evidence supporting her termination with the wait list. Instead, she was terminated because of lobbyist kickbacks.

Is VA only using its “A” Team to screw veterans in benefits appeals or tort claims for medical malpractice? Probably.

In a similar way, VA lawyers now failed to adequately present evidence while considering the claims against Rubens and Graves. Apparently, the lawyers failed to properly present an entire volume of evidence

How does any attorney get so much so wrong so often? Is there a VA Mafia intimidating VA attorneys? Even organized crime would be reluctant to ignore the lessons learned by the likes of Diana Rubens and Kim Graves.

Perhaps some kind of veteran ‘maphia” is the only thing that can combat this duplicity? Should veteran band behind experience and duration to ensure unified outcomes?

There seems to be a little bit of “F” “U” in the face of veterans who have fought tooth and nail for justice in their own benefits cases these past years. The tragedy of “rights” when it comes to those idiots is that real rights and justice only apply to VA employees and not veterans.

I guess the joke is on us. Time to press on and make real magic happen.

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50 Comments

  1. Here is the article that was referenced.

    nwitimes.com
    Demotions for 2 top VA employees on hold
    December 03, 2015 2:57 pm • By DEB RIECHMANN

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that it has rescinded the demotions of two high-ranking officials, but will reissue them after a paperwork mix-up in the case is resolved.

    In November, Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves were demoted from senior executives — the highest rank for career employees — to general workers within the Veterans Benefits Administration. Rubens had been earning $181,497 as director of the Philadelphia regional office for the VBA, while Graves earned $173,949 as leader of the St. Paul, Minnesota, regional office.

    The VA’s acting inspector general said in a report this fall that Rubens and Graves forced lower-ranking regional managers to accept job transfers against their will. Rubens and Graves then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their pay while reducing their responsibilities.

    Ryan Hedgepeth, oversight director at the VA, said in a statement that both employees appealed their demotions and that their geographic reassignments to lower-paying jobs were on hold pending the appeals process. He said an agency lawyer had discovered that one of five binders of evidence supporting the demotions had not been given to the employees.

    “To rectify this omission, the department must rescind and reissue the proposed demotions and afford the employees the opportunity to respond to the additional supporting evidence,” he said. “The process is now under way.”

    Before taking the regional jobs, Rubens was a deputy undersecretary at the VA’s Washington headquarters, while Graves was director of VBA’s 14-state North Atlantic Region. Both employees currently are reporting to the VBA’s central office.

    In addition to naming themselves to vacancies, Rubens and Graves were accused of obtaining more than $400,000 in questionable moving expenses through a relocation program for VA executives, the IG’s report said. The two face possible criminal prosecution.

    Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, chastised the VA, saying it “botched the disciplinary process” for the two employees.

    “It seems VA’s incompetence knows no bounds. … This is an absolutely egregious mistake, and right now it’s incumbent upon VA leaders to do two things: explain to taxpayers, veterans and Congress who will be held accountable for this failure and outline its plan for finally getting serious about accountability at the department,” Miller said.

    1. I went to the Albuquerque VA in September of 2012 as I had very serious medical conditions. They placed me on one of their secret wait lists. I immediately contacted Charles Brunt at the Albuquerque Journal and informed him of the VA wait lists. His response to me “I will file your complaint about the VA with the other complaints. We can never get any response from the VA as they hide behind the Hippa laws.”. Laws that are there to protect patients privacy the VA use to keep their disqusting secrets. I then went back to the VA and told them that I filed a complaint with the Albuquerque Journal. The VA gave me an appointment. As I walked into the VA building for my appointment my phone rang. The call was from a VA employee who stated they cancelled my appointment for that day and that I needed to make another appointment. I made another appointment. When I went to the rescheduled appointment and checked in the clerk stated “we left a message on your phone the previous day cancelling your appointment. You will have to make another appointment.”. I made another appointment. I went to the again rescheduled appointment. I got just a little bit further this time. I checked in for the appointment. They placed me in an exam room and they never came back to the exam room. I sat there for well over an hour and then just left not seeing anyone.

      My wife is a retired RN from the VA. As with most lower level VA employees, she is very very afraid of the gang that run the VA. The VA is a very very corrupt and criminal organization. Those in charge of the VA run it just like a gang. If a VA employee does the dirt for the gang they receive promotions, raises, bonuses, time off and benefits for life. It is always loyalty to their gang above any kind of integrity. That’s the way the VA is run…..

      The story gets much much worse for me. I thank you for reading it. I was on a medication that would have prevented me from having a seizure. The VA refused to give me the medicine and in January 2014 I had a major major seizure. The seizure almost killed me. I am permanently partially paralyzed on my entire left side. From the top of my head to the tip of my toe. The pain that I experience every waking moment is unbearable. The seizure affected my whole being. I live a life that is not worth living. All because I reported the VA to the Albuquerque journal. As stated before I reported the VA to the newspaper months before the story broke in Phoenix. Eventually because of my medical condition I found myself living in the mountains outside of Tucson Az with my four pets. Homeless, badly injured, broke and hopeless. I know if I die they win. I somehow keep going. Mainly because of my pets and prayers. I know so much about the VA that I will share with you tomorrow. It will diqust you and make you very angry. May god bless. You may contact me at [email protected]

  2. Not a damn thing will be done. Why is that you may ask??? It’s due to this fucked up political climate that’s taken over OUR nation. If charges would be applied, the ACLU would have a field day due to the fact that because Rubens and Graves are rug munchers they would say that the “lovely couple” was unfairly targeted.

  3. Letting the VA get away with screwing the veterans and getting away with unethical behavior is no one’s fault but the Veterans themselves. We as veterans have enormous power and that power needs to be displayed right away. All veterans need to organize in the millions and march mainly on Washington, DC and for those who cannot travel march onto their local VA Medical Centers and VA Affair Departments. In the millions, we can close down DC for weeks. March in front of the White House, Congress, and the Veterans Department. Tell the President, Congress and Secretary McDonald (the green berate who served in Nam and O’Bama’s yes man) to immediately fix the VA to perform its functions in favor of veterans. Fire unethical bureaucrats immediately, fire leave with pay bureaucrats who have been on paid leave for an unexplained extended time, fire bureaucrats who have retaliated against whistleblowers, make good on whistleblowers, no pensions for bureaucrats who have resigned but had unethical issues, fire those bureaucrats who have plead the fifth in front of Congress or at the minimum put them on leave without pay and reduction in benefits and many other actions against the VA to numerous to mention. If the President, Congress and the VA Secretary do not enforce the changes, we should give them 16 hours to get out of town or million of veterans will physically throw them out. If the police or federal agents get in our way, they will also be thrown out. Enough of this B***S***.

  4. There is something terribly wrong with this case. Why are these two women, who scammed the govt/veterans for hundreds of thousands of dollars and plead the 5th in front of congress, UNTOUCHABLE??

    1. Because American are letting them.until it effects them personally. We vote people into office to help the people. But it seems our elected officials are to busy doing something else.

      Just go to cspan and look how many elected officials are there.you can count them on one hand.

      It’s like a ghost town.where just a few senators or congressmen stand up and make speeches.but no one is there to listen.

      I guess their all waiting for the movie version.

  5. What a sham, VA attorney’s breach their duty and VA employees escape prosecution! The VA attorneys responsible for this should be sued for malpractice?? The appropriate State Bar, etc. should look into this oversight !

    1. The state and JCAHO have no jurisdiction at the VA. The VA is protected and regulated (I use the term very loosely) at the federal level. Its essentially the VA’s responsibility to police itself.

  6. pendejo va is one big big big federal rico crime racket from hell run by AFGE UNION CONTRACTS VETS YO ATR SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SCFREWED BY VA SEWAGE RATS AGIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. OT, but the WaPo has an article saying the female San Bernadino shooter pledged allegiance to the ISIS leader.

    More JV team violence.

  8. So they get demoted and keep their cushy jobs with the Government instead of being fired on the spot, and yet the Vets they harmed are still receiving nothing?

    In what world-reality-universe-dimension does this make sense to anyone other then in DC?

      1. No, they did not. Take a look at the past couple weeks of articles on this blog and you will have all the pertinent links.
        The refused to show-up initially before Congress.
        They showed-up and all plead The Fifth.
        There was enough evidence/proof to prosecute but did not matter.
        The VA only “Demoted” them 1-grade lower but retained same pay.
        These thugs *were* being sent to ground zero, Phoenix VAMC and another.
        VA Attorney’s effectively throw the case under the bus by not being prepared.
        All demotions reversed, not required to pay one dollar back.
        Emboldening thugs with promise they can do as they want nd not be held accountable.

        (there’s also an elaborate ‘love triangle’ of sorts shadowing this)

      2. Hiw many people reading this have been screwed out of travel pay by the va in one way or another? I have plenty of times but yet these bimbos get 600k as a gift. Just once again being raped by the va. Fuck these people

      3. The VA just don’t care.if they game the system.

        Every employee and veterans will have to worry about how these two are going to retaliate against them to prove they pull the strings and we are the puppets.

        Until.employees are held accountable for their misdeeds.veterans lives are in jeopardy of having their claims fiddled with and or destroyed.

        How can they be trusted with Americans national treasure.it’s veterans.

        People from other countries see everything going on and probably just shaking their heads.

        Guess American has lost their way and no longer.the land of the free.

  9. In a civilian court the judge would give a continuance to correct the problem.

    With the VA it is just a the use of plausible deniability to protect one of their own in their war on Veterans.

    Anybody who is connected to any VA Health Care Provider is putting their health, life and that of their loved ones at serious risk.

  10. I feel for the employees that have to work under those two ladies.can you imagine.if an employee sees something being done wrong.they have no one to go to.
    Those employees have a very good chance of being retaliated against.

    Those two will find employees who will keep their mouths shut and do their bidding.

  11. Great. I had a long comment typed up on my phone, and because of the stupid Facebook/LinkedIn share buttons being so close to the one line comment box, I accidently hit the LinkedIn button and got sent to that stupid site and couldn’t get back to my comment.

  12. I patiently wait for.medicare and real doctors. Just 5 more years.

    The va is the evil empire bought and paid for by us.

    These 2 bimbos are just anothet reminder that these people think veterans are there so they can get a enormous amount of money.

    Fed up

  13. I have only been up an hour and already my day has turned from bad to shit with this news. Is it any wonder vets hate the VA?

    1. Agree entirely! This does absolutely nothing to help my attitude to remain minutely positive in making any headway in attempting hold the VA accountable. Pretty depressing. Good thing I see my civilian cognitive therapist in an hour and half.

      Today’s news does absolutely nothing to help Veteran’s sense of dread and heightened anxiety with having to deal with the VA in any capacity. One step forward, 80 steps backward. Such is the beast called the VA.

      Now I wonder how much more badly VA Whistleblowers will be retaliated against…and these two women probably have all kinds of retaliation already planned.

    2. Think about how incompetent these people have to be to eF something up like this after they had Helman to practice on…and did the same thing.
      Then think about a veteran dealing with incompetence on a bigger scale every day.
      I am starting to think this latest screw-up was an intentional way to lose the case. How the hell do you not insure absolutely everything is in order before going forward, particularly after doing the exact same thing with Helman?
      Hey you outraged Congressmen…we deal with this kind of stupidity on a DAILY basis, sometimes several times a day!
      Also, how is it the VA can manage to go back 25 years to find an obscure medical note to justify denying your claim, but they can manage to screw up a case like this?

  14. File a complaint at the DC Bar, Youll get 3 tunabeasy for the price of 1 .There is a tunabeast at MSPB, OSC and VA. Crooked government attorneys is a threat to national security and perpetrate these horrendous acts of mass shootings and mayhem. Think of what steps these people who have commited those crimes have grieved or experienced before acting out like that. It is always those squishy ass men, that talk shit and can never back it up in person that are in control of crucial US policy. Little faggots.

  15. A predator goes to where the prey will likely be. Watering holes in the savanah desert, grazing grounds on the plains, or choke points in trails leading to and from water and food. They target the sick and weak. They target the old. They target those that they can bring down with the least effort and risk.

    Predators go to work at VHA for the same reason. It may not be cognitive at first. We are predatory in nature, but those most strongly predatory are instinctually drawn to the place where there is a choke point of the sick, weak, and infirm.

    We see that the instincts that draw a person into a life of charitable giving and healing are not those instincts that can withstand the environment at VHA. Those such souls who do stumble in, quickly exit. It is the Senior Staff (SS), who is listed only by that name on most of the infamous PRF letters sent to veterans. It is not just one of the SS that posess the instincts of a predator.

    The SS is ONLY composed of the corrupt, whether moral or not, when you dance with a skunk, you smell like one.

    1. To the moderator of the site: I posess several phone recordings of a man in Roseburg OR VHA, that identified himself by name and also as the “Chairman of the Disruptive Behavior Committee”. You want to smell a skunk? How about I agree to grant you the rights to play those audio files on your site here? In it, you will hear the Chairman explain that he cannot write a letter to me to communicate what the Chief of Staff told him to say. I ask him why? “Because the communication is too delicate..” he goes on. It gets WAYYYYY better. He eventually says that he knows the PRF letter is not based on truth, nor any disruption I made. He goes on to say that they will only release the PRF restrictions if I agree to a number of circumstances.

      Now I can tell you this without hesitation: Those circumstances are illegal. Do you want to hear how the Chairman of the DBC called me himself to say at first he couldn’t speak them into the phone, then after several calls he slipped up horribly and let slip what they were demanding. At first they required that they visit me IN MY HOME to deliver the message from the Chief of Staff. He said, we are coming there to negotiate (an end to the PRF).”

      Does this interest you? Wait until you hear his reasoning why a letter (documentation) could not be sent – that they had to come personally to my home…

      Then of course I can show you the Internal Investigative report I already informed you of: labelled “non criminal” and documents posession, distribution, conspiracy to distribute, official misconduct and a littany of crimes that the VHA police chief in Roseburg is quoted in that report at saying, “…this is a crime that carries 6 years in Federal Prison, and a $200,000 and seperate $250,000 fine. They obtained a confession.

      And the report is labelled “non-criminal”.

      I can show it to you if you want. You may post it. I already put the reference number up but it was taken down, so I will not repeat that.

      This is how I can take action beyond fancy words. I can share my telephone conversations. Let you hear a doctor stumble for words on why, just WHY, they cannot send a letter – why they had to come to my home personally with the message.

      1. Is your local newspaper covering this as well? I read the other two articles and can only think, this is what happens when you give nitwits what they think is unlimited power to command.

      2. That’s just totally crazy.who was going to show up.That takes a lot of guts to come into someone’s home.

        I bet they would have gone back.with some crazy story.that you invited them and then tryed to kill them and they had to protect themselves and felt their life was endangered and had kill you because you threaten them.

        What I have seen and heard about the VA employees misdeeds so this may not be so farfetched.

        They don’t want to put anything in writings because they may get caught in their lyes.

        The disruptive committee needs to be abolished and every veterans cases reopened and proper investigations done.by someone other than the VA.

    2. VETS THE MAFIA IS MICKEY MOUSE TO VA FEDERAL RICO CRIME RACKETS VA DC HQ SEWAGE RATS ARE LAUFGING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  16. @namnibor, and all.
    I bet it was a combination of things over why these two weren’t prosecuted or demoted. “Sexual discrimination” being the least of VA’s worries. I bet these two had so much “dirt” on VA. If they had been prosecuted, the “dung slinging” wouldn’t have stopped for years!
    We’ve all seen how incompetent Washington is. Especially since this new potus took over seven years ago. Y’all know the old saying, “sh!t flows down hill.” Well, this is a perfect example.
    Until a new Government is restored to make this a true “Constitutional Republic” again. I feel all we will be doing is “pissing into the wind!”

  17. One question I have is where the decisions took place?

    Another question is did they benefit by their being transferred to places like Phoenix where the process may be more corrupted and the prosecutor could sandbag his own case?

    1. Another deeper question is: Did the VA also cancel the “demotion and relocation to Phoenix and other one to Texas as well? I am wondering of they ever actually moved/went to new “demoted positions”? Since their “punishment is now moot”, this begs for more questions to be answered.
      I also want to know WHERE these decisions took place? Across a table in a closed secret strategy that went along he lines of: “Do not worry, the VA will make sure to not have all required materials so your cases will also all be made moot”…and want to bet they get not only promoted further but also each receive huge bonuses for being good criminals and Pleading The Fifth?

      This article today just further sickens me along with yesterday’s topic about “Uncle Fester” and the Hep C debacle.

      Tell me just HOW this is supposed to make Veterans feel safe in using and dealing with the VA now that all VA Employees have been made to be emboldened in knowledge they can never be held accountable with these to scammers and fraudsters getting away scot-free with no accountability nor personal ethics required?

      1. I know just how you feel and I do feel the same way.

        Also the more research I do on “Uncle Fester” the clear it is becoming that a better name would be “Chester the Molester” form the old Hustler cartoons.

        In regards to who made the decision I dought that Mark Romaneski, the Regional Counsel in Phoenix would have been able to pull this off without assistance. It is more likely John H, Thompson the VA Deputy General Counsel and Diana Rubens former coworker in Washington is responsible.

      2. John H, Thompson the VA Deputy General Counsel needs to be fired outright for his actions to date. Not just for what he has likely done here but for his defense of illegal VA actions over the years.

        He is also the person who likely told the people who were called before congress to plead the 5th.

        He is also the person in the number one position for collecting the most bonuses.

  18. Simply amazing! Can you imagine having to work for or with these clowns now must be like day after day?
    This ONLY displays to ALL VA Employees that it’s TRUE..there’s absolutely NO accountability and you can do what the fuck you want with no worries and continue to screw Tax Payers and Abuse Veterans without impunity.

    Anyone else thinking that behind the scenes they were threatening the VA with a Sexual Discrimination Suit or something along those lines? I do.

    1. I suspect these two nasty cows have all kinds of dirt on various VA upper managers. They obviously knew exactly who to go to in order to do what they needed to scam the system, and it wasn’t just Hickey. You don’t get corrupted to the extent they did with seeing the dirty laundry of others.

      Question is, who might risk their jobs to cover for them?

      1. I am now more and more thinking that General Hickey was thrown under the bus by the VA Secretary as “the sacrificial lamb”…and by the way, must we ask this again….WHERE IS VA Sec. McDONALD??????

        Oh that’s right…he is a bit like Groundhog’s Day…but only comes out of his hole to ask Congress for more $$$$.

      2. I think it’s clear at this point that McDonald could boink a sheep on the WH lawn and Congress would do nothing to him. With a year left, Congress knows getting rid of him will do nothing to change the VA. Besides, that would take effort. I also think Congress knows more about how thorough the corruption is at many levels of management in the VA, and showing McDonald the door won’t change that. They might hold a few show hearings to indicate they are doing something, but I don’t hold out much hope for anything.
        I thought Miller was winding up to try do something, but even that fell apart after Graves and Rubens gave him the finger.
        The media and Congress are in campaign mode, so unless something really outrageous happens, I don’t see much changing at the VA. Hell Isakson has been so quiet on the Senate VA committee, I have to keep looking up who chairs it to remember.
        At this point, I think our only hope is to continue to try getting the Presidential candidates to notice and make an issue of VA incompetence and corruption.

      3. ^
        THAT conjured some rather unforgettable creative images in my brain that I’d rather forget…but my brain took it further with Rubens and Graves dressed-up as a Disney, “Mary Had A Little Lamb”…it just got weird.
        “Boinkin’ Sheep On The Whitehouse Lawn”…I think I am going to have to write a new song with this theme. LOL!

        Hey! One’s sense of humor is one of the few things that cannot be taken from you…it’s gotten me through some dark times…but it’s no reason to be complacent either.
        Today’s article shed clear bright light on how deep the VA has infected the USA Government then I read on stripes dot com today (related to yesterday’s Uncle Fester VA Dr.), that folks on Tricare are getting seriously fleeced with higher premiums, drug costs, and trying to make them go to military base medical facilities…and it’s a good read and reveals how apparently, the healthcare in active military is not top notch as it used to be, more of a federal training program and immigration platform…here’s the link, add the web prefix:
        “Higher TRICARE drug prices worry some military retirees”
        stripes.com/higher-tricare-drug-prices-worry-some-military-retirees-1.379251

  19. The VA doesn’t want to prosecute these two. I don’t think it ever intended to prosecute them all along. The VA just wants to continue to be the veterans adversary only. Which means high ranking officials like these two who have committed fraud will get off scott free and probably then get promoted. VA higher ups like these two can cleverly concoct a little scheme like they did in order to get something for themselves that wasn’t earned and is unwarranted while veterans are threatened and lied to all the time. In my case, a VA examiner once asked me to describe to him what would I get with a monthly VA compensation. I described to him that it would provide me with the means to live on and various other things. But, he went and rather fiendishly wrote down that all I wanted to talk to him about was getting a monthly check. Then he sent that in to the rating board and then I was denied service connection. He put a booby trap in front of me. In my combat infected mentality anyway, he became a North Vietnamese Army soldier out to get me. Ever since then, I have to think that of some of those people at the VA are the same as those die hard communist soldiers that some of us vets had to go up against.

    1. I had a sleep study technician do something similar to me years ago. In my opinion, doing something like that is highly unethical, and as bad as knowingly giving a patient medicine that the doctor knows will cause a life threatening reaction.
      Both giving the wrong medicine and being a dishonest bastard affect the proper delivery of health care.

    2. I also had a doctor question me why I joined the army and questioned my patriotism In writings. Why do they even ask questions like that and then but negative comments into your official chart.

      Its only their opinion and opinions should not be recorded as fact. They are trying to discredit the veterans.why I guess as a key to go after the veterans as to their patriotism.

      This type of integration has no place in caring for veterans.

      Guess they will do anything to belittle a veteran.

      1. Oh its clear they will do anything and EVERYTHING required to maintain thier position of power while silencing those they are supposed to serve.
        There in lies oue biggest problem. The simple injustice of it all.
        We are soldiers who vowed to give it all to serve and protect this country. Then we are given a health care system that seems to do nothing more than serve to make the american public feel they are doing thier part to care for us. While the system itself serves to diminish the amount of members it must serve at all cost.

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