Personnel Security Decision  (10 CFR Part 710)

On December 31, 2014, an Administrative Judge issued a decision in which he concluded that an individual’s security clearance should not be restored.  Following the individual’s employer receipt of a garnishment notice from the IRS with respect to the individual, the local security office (LSO) reviewed the individual’s security file which revealed a history of financial issues and questionable disclosure. The LSO raised security concerns under Criteria F and L based on allegations of individual’s: 1) failure to disclose non-payment of taxes on his QNSPs for 2010, 2011 and 2012, 2) outstanding collection and charge-off debt, non-payment of federal income taxes for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013, and 3) failure to disclose 18 collection and charge-off account on his QNSPs for 2005 and 2010. The Administrative Judge found that the omission of tax defaults from the individual’s 2010, 2011 and 2012 QNSPs constituted deliberate omissions of significant information under Criterion F, for which the individual failed to provide credible mitigation. With respect to Criterion L, the Administrative Judge found a continuing pattern of financial irresponsibility based upon a charge-off account remaining outstanding and upon the individual’s failure to pay his most recent year’s taxes (2013) as required by law, representing the fourth tax default in the prior five years. The testimony offered by the individual to mitigate the omission of financial account deficiencies from his 2005 and 2010 QNSPs was not credible and was contradicted by earlier written statements by the individual to the DOE. OHA Case No. PSH-14-0094 (Wade M. Boswell)