The FBI and Department of the Interior inspector general’s office are investigating a 2013 ticketing scandal at the USS Arizona Memorial and tour company involvement with some park staff, sources said.
The federal agencies reportedly came through the park in recent weeks, seized some computers and cellphones and questioned employees.
For about seven months in 2013, the National Park Service and its nonprofit fundraising arm, Pacific Historic Parks, diverted a large portion of what were supposed to be free tickets at the door for tours of the memorial, and instead sold them with an audio tour for $6 apiece to tour companies, according to one of several past Park Service investigations into park activities.
Thousands of dollars flowed daily from tour companies through the Arizona Memorial without controls, the investigations revealed. A late January 2014 review found the park had no policies or standards for ticketing operations, providing "ample opportunity for abuse."
A "bazaar-like" atmosphere existed with commercial tour operators working inside the visitor center to pick up, exchange, barter and purchase USS Arizona Memorial tickets.
Further investigation was recommended into allegations of gifts being accepted from commercial tour operators.
The National Park Service Pacific West Region higher headquarters could not be reached for comment Friday.
"We can’t confirm or deny that" an investigation is underway, said Jason K. White, an FBI special agent in Honolulu.
Individuals who spoke to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser did not want to be identified out of fear of reprisal.
Paul DePrey, former superintendent of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the Arizona Memorial, stated in May 2014: "When I made the decision (to sell the tickets), I thought it was proper and legal." But the program was stopped "because I learned that I made a mistake," he said.
As a result of a National Park Service investigation, DePrey said he was told by officials that the practice violated park policy.
"And immediately after learning that, we stopped the program," he said.
In response, DePrey said he put together a "ticketing team" that included park employees and National Park Service staff from regional and Washington, D.C., offices "to go through all of the items that were identified in the (investigation) to see what could be done immediately."
DePrey, who came to the Arizona Memorial in 2008, recently was reassigned as superintendent of Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites in Massachusetts.
A spokesman for the Park Service’s Pacific West Region previously said the Park Service followed up on the ticketing problems at the USS Arizona with a corrective action plan.
The sunken USS Arizona is the grave for most of the battleship’s 1,177 sailors and Marines killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.
The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act prohibits the Park Service from charging a fee to visit the memorial. But associated charges included a $1.50 convenience fee collected by Recreation.gov for an online reservation system, and fees for audio headsets that came with a ticket.
Each day a total of 4,350 tickets are available for the USS Arizona Memorial tour. In 2013, more than 700 tickets a day were sometimes pulled from the walk-up batch and sold to commercial operators with the audio tour, Park Service investigators found.
Some tour companies in turn charged $75 to $120 per person for transportation, a ticket to the memorial, and an Oahu tour. One tour operator was in the parking lot selling tickets for $30, and one tourist paid $89 for the supposedly free tickets.
A top park manager was described as being friends with the head of a tour company, playing golf with him — and working only from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. every day. When employees complained about the ticket practices, they were told "to mind their own business," reports said.
"Overall the results of the review are very concerning," stated a March 7, 2014, Park Service memo.
Only a few people were privy to the ticketing operation. Pacific Historic Parks became a ticket broker, but there was no written agreement allowing it to act as one, one of the reviews said.
DePrey previously said Park Service investigators concluded the bundling of the free tickets with the $6 audio headset rental was improper.
Following the investigations, about half of all tickets to the USS Arizona issued daily were made available for walk-ups on a first-come, first-served basis, the Park Service said.
