A former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) risk analyst, Malcolm Alexander-Neal, has been accused of stealing $200,000 from American taxpayers through a scheme that involved falsely claiming to live and work in Chicago while actually residing in Mexico City and other countries.
Records show Alexander-Neal worked remotely from Mexico City as a CFTC risk analyst from March 2022 until February 2025. During this period, he falsely told colleagues he lived in Chicago. He was placed on administrative leave in February 2025 and officially left the CFTC in July of that year.
Alexander-Neal served as president of the National Treasury Employees Union and worked just 542 hours from March 2024 to December 2024, less than half of the 1,200 hours he was required to work. According to a letter provided by the CFTC to Senator Chuck Grassley, only 7 percent of Alexander-Neal’s work account emails were related to CFTC business, while 90 percent dealt with the National Treasury Employees Union.
Senator Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, described Alexander-Neal’s actions as a “textbook case of government waste, fraud and abuse.” He stated: “Mr. Alexander-Neal defrauded American taxpayers and failed to uphold his oath as a federal employee. Every dollar he stole should be returned.”
Alexander-Neal received $200,000 in salary and benefits during the 2023 fiscal year. His telework arrangement was made possible by policies established under the Biden administration that allowed federal employees to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump had authorized federal remote work in March 2020 but sought to roll it back at the end of his term, which Biden maintained throughout his presidency.
Republicans have alleged that the Biden administration caved to pressure from federal employee unions to allow high levels of telework well after the pandemic ended. A January 2025 report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee stated: “Biden-Harris Administration officials worked with federal labor union allies not only to lock in high telework levels, but to undermine the ability of the incoming Trump Administration to unlock them, and to manage its own workforce.”
The CFTC learned about Alexander-Neal’s scheme through an autobiography he published last year. The agency found that he set up a Virtual Private Network from Mexico City, violating CFTC policy, and “teleworked” from 11 different countries, including Lebanon, Chile, and the Dominican Republic. Alexander-Neal initially lied to investigators about his living arrangements but later admitted to working outside the country. He now operates an accounting firm called Mac Neal.
Alexander-Neal did not respond to requests for comment.