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Report: Former Acadia National Park Director Accepted Illegal Gifts

PORTLAND, Maine - A former director of Acadia National Park is accused of accepting an illegal gift in the form of a Caribbean vacation offered to him months before his retirement in 2015.

An Interior Department investigation made public Thursday lays out the case against a "senior official'' at Acadia who received the gift from board members of a nonprofit he later joined. Former Acadia Superintendent Sheridan Steele retired in 2015 and joined the Schoodic Institute.

According to the report, two board members provided him with airfare and a yacht excursion valued at more than $14,000.

Steele's attorney denied that he did anything wrong by accepting the vacation that his family took after his retirement date. He called the case a "total waste'' of investigative resources. The U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute.