A former electronics technician at the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and his sister were charged July 2 with conspiring to defraud the United States to win $350,000 in low-bid contracts to provide the agency with electronic equipment, according to federal prosecutors.
Jeffrey Spencer, 51, of Canyon Country, and Christy Evereklian, 43, of Temecula, agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
The two are expected to enter their pleas in the next few weeks in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
According to their plea agreements, the brother and sister conspired to defraud the United States from August 2015 to August 2020 by impeding the solicitation of competitive bids for electronic equipment through deceitful and dishonest means, prosecutors said.
Spencer, who was an FBI procurement official, solicited bids for the equipment, then conspired with Evereklian to submit purportedly independent and competitive bids from several companies she owned.
Prosecutors claim Spencer and Evereklian had already decided which company would submit the lowest—and presumably winning—bid for a contract.
Evereklian allegedly submitted bids from her own companies using names of her relatives to conceal her control over the companies. She also allegedly used a random number generator to create the fraudulent bids.
Evereklian admitted in her plea agreement that during the conspiracy, her companies won at least $350,000 in contracts from the FBI.
The Justice Department’s Inspector General conducted the investigation as part of the Procurement Collusion Strike Force.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Jason Pang of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting the case.
A man answering a number associated with Jeffrey Spencer hung up on The Epoch Times when contacted about the case.
An attorney representing Evereklian did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.
COVID-19 Fraud Case
In another case involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, an Inglewood woman was arrested Wednesday on a 14-count federal grand jury indictment alleging she fraudulently obtained more than $1.3 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.
Prosecutors say Selena Stewart, 45, is suspected of submitting more than 100 fraudulent applications for unemployment insurance benefits using stolen identities, including those of California prisoners.
Stewart was arrested and arraigned Wednesday.
At her arraignment, Stewart pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of mail fraud, one count of use of authorized access devices, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of possession of at least 15 unauthorized access devices.
A trial date of Aug. 26 was scheduled, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
A federal magistrate judge ordered Stewart to be released on a $10,000 bond.
Prosecutors allege that from March 2020 to December 2020, Stewart and codefendants Toby Brazier, 48, of Westlake, and Tony Queen, 67, of Culver City, filed fake applications for state unemployment benefits.
The applications were allegedly filed using stolen identifications, and some of them did not qualify for the benefits because they were in state prison.
Brazier and Queen are charged with 10 counts of mail fraud. Queen is expected to appear next week in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Brazier is considered a fugitive.
