/ Source: The Associated Press
A Veterans Affairs employee was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for taking more than $115,000 in kickbacks on the purchase of red tape — actual red tape.
The tape is stamped with the word “security” and is intended to deter tampering.
Natalie Coker, former associate director of a VA pharmacy in Murfreesboro, was arrested along with her boss in November in a scheme to collect kickbacks from a company that was selling the tape to the federal agency at inflated prices.
Her boss, Joseph Haymond, was found dead at his home in an apparent suicide the day after his arrest.
Coker was sentenced on Tuesday.