West Point Employee Charged in Nearly $3 Million
Embezzlement Scheme

WASHINGTON – A Highland Falls, N.Y., woman was arrested today and charged in a criminal complaint for her role in a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by authorizing nearly $3 million in payments to a non-existent corporation for staff training that she knew never occurred at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. (West Point), Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and Brig. Gen. Rodney Johnson, Commander of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command announced.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, Bobbie Cyana Ryan, 50, worked in the Information, Education and Technology Division in the Office of the Dean at West Point. According to the complaint, Ryan was responsible for coordinating information technology training programs for West Point staff. Based on irregularities found during a routine audit, U.S. Army investigators discovered that Ryan, acting as the requesting and approving official, used her government purchase card and cards of her unknowing subordinates to authorize $2.9 million in payments to CWG Enterprises. The complaint alleges that the payments were purportedly for either on-site training instructors or training reference materials when, in fact, no personnel were ever trained and no materials were ever provided.

According to the complaint, U.S. Army investigators subsequently discovered that Ryan conducted financial transactions and identified herself as doing business as CWG Enterprises. The complaint alleges that Ryan used a rented mail box as the company address for CWG Enterprises. Based on false invoices allegedly created by Ryan, transfers of government funds were allegedly made from a bank in Washington, D.C. to a bank account in the name of "Bobbie C. Ryan dba CWG Enterprises" at a bank in New Windsor, N.Y. Once the funds arrived in the purported CWG Enterprises bank account, Ryan allegedly transferred the funds to her personal account and then made substantial cash withdrawals.

The court today ordered that Ryan be released on a $30,000 bond and her travel was restricted pending her next court appearance, scheduled for Jan. 29, 2009, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Charges in a criminal complaint are merely allegations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, Major Procurement Fraud Unit, Hartford Fraud Resident Agency. The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Andrew Levchuk of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief William M. Welch II, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.