Patent office workers bilked the government of millions by playing hooky, watchdog finds

Thousands of employees who review patents for the federal government cheated taxpayers out of at least $18.3 million as they billed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for almost 300,000 hours they never worked, according to a new investigation by the agency’s watchdog.

The report released Wednesday determined that the full scale of fraud is probably double those numbers. Investigators said they interpreted the data they gathered conservatively, often giving employees the benefit of the doubt for the time they reportedly worked.

The data showed that, among other patterns of fraud, more than 400 patent examiners were paid but did not show up for work at least one day every other week — and more than 50 of these employees were not working an average of three days.

The “minute-by-minute review” looked at the work culture of the gatekeepers to a crucial sector of the U.S. economy by analyzing billions of agency computer records covering 15 months in late 2014 and 2015.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/08/31/patent-office-workers-cost-taxpayers-millions-by-playing-hooky-watchdog-finds/