SC DNR Officer Eric Vaughn willfully falsified an official document by signing his license. Officer Vaughn is not now, nor has he ever been, a resident of Ohio.

A records check of hunting licenses issued to Eric Vaughn in Ohio revealed that in 2006, Vaughn was issued an Ohio resident hunting license, which listed his home address as the home address of Allan Wright. The fee for a resident hunting license is $19, while the nonresident license is $125.00

The Ohio Division of Wildlife receives no taxpayer or General Revenue Funds (“GRF”), but is funded through revenue from license and permit fees. So because of Vaughn's actions your fund was fraudulently compromised.

A “resident” is a person who has resided in the state of Ohio “not less than six months next preceding the date of making application for a license.”2 All others are considered “nonresidents” and must purchase nonresident licenses.

The ODNR Wildlife hunting license application form clearly states that “providing fraudulent information is a violation of 2921.13 of the Ohio Revised Code.” A violation of this section is classified as a misdemeanor of the first degree.

"Ohio Revised Code section 2921.13A (5) Falsification; states “no person shall knowingly make a false statement, or knowingly swear or affirm the truth of a false statement previously made, when any of the following apply:… the statement is made with purpose to secure the issuance by a governmental agency of a license, permit, authorization, certificate, registration, release, or provider agreement.”

Wright admitted he was friends with SCDNR Officer Eric Vaughn, and that he had assisted Vaughn with obtaining an Ohio resident hunting license in
2006 during a hunting trip in Ohio.

On July 30, 2008, USFWS reported to the Ohio Wildlife Law Enforcement Executive Administrator that they found no evidence of misconduct by the USFWS officer. The USFWS report included Wright’s admission of assisting Vaughn in obtaining the Ohio resident license.

Wright admitted that he assisted Vaughn in obtaining a fraudulent resident hunting license by advising Vaughn to use his (Wright’s) home address as his own.

Wright also admitted checking in the three deer killed by Vaughn. Wright knowingly recorded a false address for Vaughn on the harvest report when he listed his address as Vaughn’s.

An ODNR Customer Purchase History query of Wright’s home address revealed Vaughn used Wright’s address in 2006, but listed his own South Carolina address on a 2007 hunting license.

As part of this OIG investigation, a Customer Purchase History query of ODNR records was done to search for any other Wildlife officer’s home address being used by others. All resident hunting licenses sold from January 1, 2006 to December 12, 2006 (308,592 records) were
extracted.

Eric Vaughn had the only record that did not have the same family name of the residence, and that had a previous or subsequent out-of-state address.

We found that Ohio Wildlife Officer Allan Wright admitted his part in obtaining a resident hunting license for his friend, South Carolina Wildlife Officer Eric Vaughn. It was Officer Wright’s idea to put his home address on Vaughn’s hunting license application to facilitate Vaughn receiving a resident hunting license. This act resulted in producing a fraudulent hunting
license and deprived Wildlife of additional revenue.

Providing fraudulent information on a hunting license application is a violation of the Ohio Revised Code, which is clearly stated on the
hunting license application.

http://watchdog.ohio.gov/investigations/2009340.pdf