wire fraud | 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

June 20, 2016 By AMK

Former GSA official and husband indicted in $1.3 million government contracting scheme

Prosecutors said the $1.3 million federal government contracting scheme was a family affair.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a former General Services Administration (GSA) official and her husband on charges of conspiring to skirt contracting rules to hire family members and the relative of another employee.

Prosecutors said Helen “Renee” Ballard, a former GSA contracting office director, and her husband, a former employee of the Arlington, Virginia-based federal contractor, CACI Inc., used their positions to place relatives on a contract that Ballard supervised.

The couple, who live in Brandywine, Maryland, were indicted on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and false statements.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-couple-indicted-in-13-million-government-contracting-scheme/2016/06/14/e18b475e-3278-11e6-95c0-2a6873031302_story.html

See Justice Department press release at: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-director-general-services-administration-division-and-husband-indicted-fraud-and

January 5, 2016 By AMK

State Department employee indicted in $2 million contract conspiracy

Kenneth Apple, 65, of Beaverton, Oregon, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to his role in awarding $2 million in micro-dairy contracts from the U.S. government for use in Iraq.

According to the indictment, Apple, a former employee with the U.S. Department of State, helped to steer the sole-sourcing of $2 million in micro-dairy contracts to a company in which his son, Jonathan Apple, owned a 50 percent interest. However, Jonathan Apple and his partner had no technical experience in the industry. Kenneth Apple conspired to use his official position to pass on non-public information to his son in order to fraudulently award and administer government contracts. The conspirators further provided false information to, and concealed material details from the U.S. government.

According to the indictment, Kenneth Apple provided templates and technical specifications used in the proposal submitted by Jonathan Apple and his partner to the U.S. government. In addition, Kenneth Apple caused false and misleading statements to be made to the U.S. government regarding his experience, ownership interest, and the status of the projects. For example, Kenneth Apple directed a conspirator to keep Jonathan Apple’s name off the company’s website and any ownership documents. When federal law enforcement agents confronted Kenneth Apple about the scheme, he made false statements, including that he could not recall the owner of the company that won the micro-dairy contracts and that he did not receive any money from the contracts.

Kenneth Apple faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted of wire fraud or obstruction of an official proceeding, and five years in prison if convicted of conspiracy or false statements. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

A copy of the press release regarding this indictment may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:15-cr-363.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

August 5, 2015 By AMK

Husband and wife admit to military contracting fraud and other schemes

Defendants pleaded guilty last week to fraudulently obtaining over $30 million in government service contracts using false representations, embezzling over $1.6 million from employee benefits plans, and evading taxes.

Shaun Tucker (a/k/a “Shawn Turner,” and “Mark Tyler”), age 49, and his wife, Joanne Tucker (a/k/a “Joanne Krcma,” “Jill Swanson,” and “Jocelyn Turner”), age 50, both of Keymar, Maryland, pleaded guilty on July 27, 2015 to the charges in connection with defrauding the United States.

The guilty pleas were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Field Office, the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigative Service, the Small Business Administration’s Inspector General, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

According to their pleas, the Tuckers were controlling officers and majority shareholders of Quantell, Inc. and Intaset Technologies Corporation from 2007 to 2010. Quantell and Intaset provided labor services to federal government agencies. In 2010, the Tuckers sold Intaset, but continued to have influence on the operation of Intaset.

Federal Procurement Fraud

From 2007 to 2013, the Tuckers and their co-conspirators, including Jonathan Mickle, made false representations to the government regarding the eligibility of Quantell and Intaset for small business, Service Disable Veteran Owned Small Business and other set-aside contracts, including the 2007 Camp Lejeune contract, 2007 Battle Creek, Michigan contract, 2008 Andrews Air Force Base contract, 2008 Beale Air Force Base contract, 2011 Langley Air Force Base contract and 2011 Camp Lejuene contract. The Tuckers and co-conspirators falsely represented the past revenues, ownership, controlling officers, distribution of profits, location and other key attributes of Quantell and Intaset to multiple federal agencies. When bid protests were lodged by competing firms, the Tuckers and co-conspirators prepared and submitted false responses. The Tuckers’ actions cause other companies, which the government actually meant to support with set-aside contracts, to lose out on valuable opportunities to provide contracting services to the federal government.

The Tuckers used the money from the government contracts for their own personal benefit, including building, purchasing and leasing a 5,000 square foot residence in Swanton, Maryland; additions to the real property in Taneytown, Maryland, including a personal residence, gym, bar and break room equipped with high definition TVs, top of the line weight equipment, video games and combat wrestling equipment; additions to the real property in Keymar; 45 foot sailboat named “Quantell;” 2008 Audi A8; 2011 BMW; and mortgage payments related to real estate, watercraft and vehicles.

The Tuckers and their co-conspirators used aliases and false identities to communicate with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in order to falsely portray the past performance of Quantell. They created a fake corporate entity name Staff-It with a fake period of performance from 2005 to 2008 involving more than $12 million of work by Quantell for Staff-It, and falsely indicated that Quantell was supplying service workers at military treatment facilities for Staff-It. Then they created phone lines and had conspirators participate in false phone conversations with DOD representatives so as to deceptively win the 2011 Camp Lejeune contract. The Tuckers and their co-conspirators carried out similar schemes with respect to other past performances, establishing internet phone lines to spoof the location of businesses, and labeling the phone lines based on the fake company contact person.

The Tuckers admit that as a result of the procurement fraud conspiracy, the full value of the contracts awarded to Quantell and Intaset based on false representations was at least $30 million.

Employee Benefit Fraud

Moreover, the service contracts awarded by the United States to Quantell and Intaset, as well as the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA), required Quantell and Intaset to provide bona-fide health and welfare benefits to the service contract employees of Quantell and Intaset hired to do the work for the federal government. From 2008 to at least 2012, however, the Tuckers stopped contributing the SCA funds to any bona-fide health and welfare plan. Instead, the Tuckers lied to employees of Quantell and Intaset, and to multiple federal agencies, regarding the compliance of Quantell and Intaset with the SCA, so that the Tuckers and their co-conspirators, including Jonathan Mickle, could divert at least $1.6 million in SCA monies paid by the government to Quantell and Intaset under service contracts for their own personal benefit. The Tuckers and their co-conspirators used shell companies and companies that they were associated with to conceal the diversion of SCA funds to them. The Tuckers falsely told employees that they would be receiving health and welfare benefits, when they knew in fact that the money was being diverted to buy luxury vehicles, make improvements on the Tuckers’ residences.

The Tuckers admit that as a result of the fraud involving employee benefits, more than $1.6 million of the SCA funds were fraudulently diverted for the co-conspirators’ benefit from at least 350 individual employees.

Tax Fraud

Finally, the Tuckers attempted to evade income tax due of $492,961 for tax years 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The Tuckers and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts the plea agreements, Shaun Tucker will be sentenced to eight years in prison and Joanna Tucker will be sentenced to between six and 18 months in prison. Shaun Tucker further agrees to pay forfeiture of at least $30 million and Joanne further agrees to pay forfeiture of at least $20 million, and that their residence in Keymar is subject to forfeiture. Both Tuckers also agree to pay restitution of at least $1.6 million in connection with the employee benefit fraud, and pay restitution to the IRS of $492,961 for tax evasion. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz has scheduled sentencing for both Tuckers for November 20, 2015, at 12:00 p.m.

In a related case, co-conspirator Jonathan Mickle, age 43, of Asheville, North Carolina, formerly of Taneytown, Maryland, pleaded guilty on June 25, 2015 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax fraud in connection with the fraud schemes. Judge Motz has scheduled sentencing for November 3, 2015, at 2:15 p.m.

The National Procurement Fraud Task Force was formed in October 2006 to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in government contracting activity for national security and other government programs. The Procurement Fraud Task Force includes the United States Attorneys’ Offices, the FBI, the U.S. Inspectors General community and a number of other federal law enforcement agencies. This and other cases brought by members of the Task Force demonstrate the Department of Justice’s commitment to helping ensure the integrity of the government procurement process.

Source: http://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/husband-and-wife-admit-procurement-fraud-scheme-and-embezzling-employee-benefits

July 21, 2014 By AMK

Disgraced Congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham is a free man again

A federal judge says it is time to forgive Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the most corrupt member of Congress ever if measured by the amount of bribes he admitted accepting.

U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns has granted Cunningham’s request to have his post-prison supervision ended early, writing a final legal chapter on the sordid tale of the flamboyant ace fighter pilot who went to Congress as a hero in 1991 and left in 2005 as a disgraced felon.

The California Republican spent more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty in November 2005 to charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Cunningham, who was 64 when he was sentenced in March 2006, had used his positions on the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees to steer lucrative contracts to those who would help him finance an extravagant lifestyle featuring 19th-century French antiques, yachts, Persian rugs, hunting trips, a Rolls Royce, and a $2.55 million home in an exclusive community in San Diego County.

It all unraveled in 2005 when The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote about the corruption, triggering a federal probe that found, among many other things, that Cunningham had drawn up a “bribe menu” on congressional notepaper, outlining what bribes he would need to deliver a contract or earmark.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2014/07/disgraced-congressman-randy-duke-cunningham-free-man-again/88513/

Prosecutors said the $1.3 million federal government contracting scheme was a family affair.

Kenneth Apple, 65, of Beaverton, Oregon, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to his role in awarding $2 million in micro-dairy contracts from the U.S. government for use in Iraq.

Defendants pleaded guilty last week to fraudulently obtaining over $30 million in government service contracts using false representations, embezzling over $1.6 million from employee benefits plans, and evading taxes.

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