money laundering | The Contracting Education Academy

December 14, 2017 By AMK

Former contracting officer at nuclear R&D facility pleads guilty to wire fraud and money laundering

A former procurement officer employed at Sandia Corporation, the prime operator of a federally funded nuclear research and development facility, pleaded guilty Dec. 5th to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for orchestrating a scheme to obtain approximately $2.3 million in federal funds through fraudulent means and for laundering fraudulently obtained proceeds through her father’s companies.

Carla Sena, 55, of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

According to the plea documents, Sena’s employer, Sandia Corporation, managed and operated Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a nuclear research and development facility owned by the federal government under sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

In late 2010, Sena managed the bidding process for the award of a multi-million-dollar contract for moving services at SNL.
Sena admitted that, in anticipation of the bidding process for this contract, she created the company, New Mexico Express Movers LLC (Movers LLC), to which she awarded the multi-million-dollar contract.
Sena prepared a bid on Movers LLC’s behalf containing fraudulent misrepresentations, and submitted the bid under the name of an individual who had no knowledge of Movers LLC to conceal her involvement.
Sena also admitted that she used her position of trust to access inside information and competing bidders’ documents that she leveraged to ensure award of the contract to Movers LLC.
As a direct result of Sena’s fraudulent scheme, Movers LLC received approximately $2.3 million in federal funds between May 2011 and April 2016.
Sena also admitted that, between October 2011 and April 2015, she transferred via negotiated checks at least $643,000 of the fraudulently obtained proceeds to legitimate businesses owned by her father with the intent to conceal the source and control of those funds and her subsequent personal gain from the proceeds.

The DOE Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-procurement-officer-federally-funded-nuclear-research-and-development-facility-pleads

November 28, 2017 By AMK

Former procurement officer indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges

A federal grand jury sitting in the District of New Mexico returned an 11-count indictment against a former procurement officer employed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a nuclear research and development facility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for orchestrating a scheme to obtain a $2.3 million contract through fraudulent means.

Carla Sena, 55, of Albuquerque, New Mexico was charged with three counts of wire fraud, one count of major fraud against the United States and seven counts of money laundering.

According to the indictment, SNL was managed and operated by Sandia Corporation (Sandia) during the relevant time period. In late 2010, Sena was assigned by Sandia to manage the bidding process for the award of a contract for moving services at SNL. In anticipation thereof, Sena created New Mexico Express Movers LLC (Movers LLC), prepared a bid on Movers LLC’s behalf, and submitted the bid to Sandia under someone else’s name to conceal her involvement. Sena made several material and fraudulent misrepresentations in Movers LLC’s bid that would have resulted in disqualification, but she used her position at SNL to ensure that these misrepresentations went undetected. Sena also used her position to access other bidders’ documents and information that she in turn leveraged to ensure award of the contract to Movers LLC. As a direct result of Sena’s scheme to defraud, Movers LLC received approximately $2.3 million in DOE funds. The indictment further alleges that, between December 2011 and April 2015, Sena transferred via negotiated checks at least $643,000 of these fraudulently obtained proceeds to legitimate businesses owned by her father with the intent to conceal her subsequent use of the proceeds for personal gain.

The indictment is the result of an ongoing investigation by the DOE Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-procurement-officer-federally-funded-nuclear-research-and-development-facility

April 26, 2016 By AMK

Florida woman charged in 18-count indictment for conspiracy to illegally export systems, components and documents to China

An 18-count superseding indictment was unsealed last Thursday (Apr. 21, 2016) charging Amin Yu, 53, of Orlando, Florida, with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General, conspiring to defraud the United States and to commit offenses against the United States, committing unlawful export information activities, smuggling goods from the United States, conspiring to and committing international money laundering and making false statements to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida.

According to the superseding indictment, from at least 2002 until approximately February 2014, Yu obtained systems and components for marine submersible vehicles from companies in the United States. She did so at the direction of co-conspirators working for Harbin Engineering University (HEU), which is a state-owned entity in the People’s Republic of China. Yu proceeded to illegally export the systems and components to China for use by her co-conspirators in the development of marine submersible vehicles – unmanned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles – for HEU and other state-controlled entities. It is alleged that Yu illegally exported items by failing to file electronic export information as required by U.S. law and also by filing false electronic export information. In particular, Yu completed and caused the completion of export-related documents in which she significantly undervalued the items that she had exported and also provided false end-user information for those items.

An indictment is merely an allegation and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

If convicted, Yu faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each of the money laundering counts. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on all other counts. The indictment also notifies Yu that the United States intends to forfeit approximately $2,668,648.92, the alleged traceable proceeds of the offenses.

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Irick of the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys David C. Recker and Thea D. R. Kendler of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/florida-woman-charged-18-count-indictment-conspiracy-illegally-export-systems-components-and

October 12, 2015 By AMK

Bid-rigging ringleader sentenced to 88 months

A Great Falls, Virginia, businessman was sentenced a little more than seven years in prison for bribing officials at the Army Corps of Engineers for contracts.

Young N. Cho, also known as Alex Cho, received an 88-month sentence and must repay $7.6 million to the Corps for his role in the bid-rigging scheme, according to the Department of Justice. He also must pay a forfeiture judgment of another $6.9 million. The sentencing took place on Oct. 8, a day before the Justice Department announced it.

From 2007 to 2011, Cho, as chief technology officer for Nova Datacom, paid $17 million in bribes to former Army Corps program manager Kerry F. Khan and another $1 million to former program manager Michael A. Alexander to get government contracts, according to the Justice Department. He also conspired with officials to steer a contract worth nearly $1 billion to his company, according to Justice.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/acquisition/2015/10/09/bid-rigging-ringleader-sentenced-88-months/73666058/

September 18, 2012 By AMK

Retired Army master sergeant and wife convicted of theft and money-laundering through illegal requisitions

Five years of false requisitions worth $2.7 million from Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services have led to convictions on several charges for a retired Army master sergeant and his wife.

Francisco Javier De La Maza and his wife, Gabriela De La Maza, were sentenced Aug. 30 in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas, in San Antonio. Francisco was sentenced to 40 months confinement and 36 months of probation based on a guilty plea to one count of theft of government property and one count of conspiracy to money launder. Gabriela was sentenced to 60 months of probation based on a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to money launder.

The two were also jointly sentenced to forfeiture of $860,863.07 for restitution and forfeiture of four pieces of real property with an appraised value of $672,000.

Restitution will go to DLA Disposition Services as the victim of the fraud, explained Supervisory Special Agent Kathy Roberts, Western Region chief for the DLA Office of the Inspector General.

Between late 2004 and his retirement in 2009, Francisco De La Maza made illegal requisitions from DLA Disposition Services on behalf of his Army unit, at Fort Hood, Texas, Roberts said. Items requisitioned and later sold for the De La Mazas’ personal profit included: computers, computer equipment and uniforms, Roberts said.

In early 2010, a DLA Disposition Services employee in San Antonio contacted her local DLA IG office to report suspicions about Francisco De La Maza’s requisitions. Tami Hooker, senior special agent for the DLA OIG, began an investigation that eventually included the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Army Criminal Investigation Command, Roberts said. The U.S. Department of Justice Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas handled the prosecution.

DLA Disposition Services’ primary mission is to make equipment and material that are no longer needed by one unit available to other units. Roberts said that aside from the monetary loss to DLA Disposition Services, the De La Mazas’ actions also potentially hurt other military units because the illegally requisitioned material wasn’t available through DLA Disposition Services.

She also praised the attentiveness of the DLA Disposition Services employee who came forward with her concerns.

“In this case, an employee thought something suspicious was going on,” Roberts said. “She didn’t know the whole story, but it was enough to make us look further.”

Roberts said DLA OIG agents often talk to agency employees about the IG role, and their main message to the workforce is to alert their local DLA IG office to any suspicions of wrongdoing.

“If you notice anything suspicious, call us, even if it’s the smallest thing,” she said.

— by Kathleen T. Rhem, DLA News, Sept. 7, 2012 at http://www.dla.mil/DLA_Media_Center/Pages/newsarticle201209071414.aspx.

A Great Falls, Virginia, businessman was sentenced a little more than seven years in prison for bribing officials at the Army Corps of Engineers for contracts.

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