PICTURED: John Behun (FILE PHOTO)(Cropped)(2016) Requests placed by TheBayNet for a booking photo from the United States District Court of Maryland have gone unanswered.
GREENBELT, Md. — A previous section chief at the FBI’s Quantico laboratory and a Southern Maryland native is facing charges for allegedly claiming nearly 900 hours of work he did not do over four years, according to court documents.
John Behun was the laboratory division section chief who led the section that supported human resources, finance, compliance/health and safety programs for over 28 years until his termination in February 2019.
Before the current investigation was announced, Behun was charged in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt with theft of government property according to WRC-TV. Then, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General held an investigation that found Behum worked significantly less than he claimed between 2015 and 2018.
During this stint, Behun claimed 876 falsely certified hours, according to charging documents. Investigators reviewed Behun’s movements within the FBI buildings, his computer login records, and financial, travel, and phone records. That includes location data, text messages and emails, to determine if he worked the hours he had alleged.
Behun even claimed a full day of work, but no evidence suggests he entered FBI office spaces. This conflicts with how he did not have permission to telework, and he did not have a flexible work schedule. Also, there is no FBI facility in Southern Maryland, and he never logged into an FBI computer or performed any official business.
Another example in charging documents showed conflicts with Behun operating the winery he co-owns, Perigeaux Vineyards & Winery in St. Leonard.
In 2017, Behun clocked in a seven-hour day of work and one hour of leave for the FBI but told his assistant he would be out sick all day. Just minutes after notifying his assistant, court documents allege that he emailed one of his business’s equipment suppliers asking for the whereabouts of a delivery driver as he had taken off from his “day job,” with plans of meeting them.
Although Behun has been released, the court has forbidden him from traveling internationally because of these charges. Neither Behun nor his attorney has responded to requests for comments on the charges.
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