Three former Department of Homeland Security employees — including the one-time acting watchdog — have been sentenced for conspiring to steal the personal data of hundreds of thousands of government employees from law enforcement databases.
Former acting Inspector General Charles Edwards was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on Friday after pleading guilty in January 2022 to conspiracy to steal government property and defraud the US and theft of government property.
Two DHS IT employees, Murali Venkata and Sonal Patel, each received four months in prison and two years of probation.
Patel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in April 2019, while Venkata was convicted by a federal jury in April 2022 of theft, wire fraud, destruction of property and conspiracy.
Prosecutors said the trio hatched a plan to steal government software and employee information from databases, with the goal of creating a commercial case management software system that Edwards’ company, Maryland-based Delta Business Solutions, would sell back to the feds.
Former Secret Service director Mark Sullivan (left) and acting Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security Charles Edwards. RELATED NEWS Three former DHS employees have been sentenced for a scheme to gain access to internal software and key databases. AFP via Getty Images
More than 200,000 employees whose information was stolen worked for the inspector general’s office at either the Department of Homeland Security or the US Postal Service, where the three conspirators had previously worked.
Upon learning of the investigation, Venkata deleted “incriminating text messages and other communications” to thwart authorities, prosecutors alleged.
Edwards, 63, left his post as acting IG in late 2013 after a Senate investigation concluded he was too comfortable with the officials he was supposed to supervise.
Charles Edwards faces 18 months in prison. Getty Images
Edwards has also been accused of violating nepotism rules by employing his wife as an auditor in his office and taking several taxpayer-funded trips from DC to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where he earned a computer and information science degree at Nova Southeastern University, in 2011. and 2012.
The watchdog continues to be accused by lawmakers of giving bonuses to employees who helped him complete schoolwork and write his dissertation, and retaliating when employees complained about his behavior. Edwards denied any wrongdoing at the time.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
