What do you do when you discover that two executives with six figure salaries conned their agency? Fire them, of course.

Unless that agency is the Department of Veterans Affairs. Then you just demote them and give them “unspecified pay cuts.”

Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, the regional directors of the Philadelphia VA and St. Paul VA respectively, abused their positions to game the VA’s job relocation compensation program. Rubens and Graves pressured lower ranking employees to transfer to new jobs against their wills in order to create vacant job positions. Rubens and Graves then stepped into those job vacancies to keep their enormous salaries without gaining additional responsibilities.

The pair also charged more the VA than $400,000 through the agency’s relocation program.

When they were called to testify in front of Congress, Rubens and Graves repeatedly plead the Fifth in order to avoid incriminating themselves. This was a last ditch effort to protect themselves from getting penalized without going to trial.

Their gambit appears to have worked. While the two Veterans Affairs executives are being punished, they aren’t being ousted. Instead, Rubens and Graves are being demoted to “general worker status,” aka assistant regional manager positions. Their salaries–$181,497 and $173,949 each–will be cut, though the agency hasn’t said by how much.

Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, put it best: “For those wondering whether VA is committed to real accountability for corrupt employees, VA leaders answered that question (Friday) with a resounding ‘no.'”