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

The Washington Post: 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.

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