A man who used to work as a lead electronics technician for the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and his sister will plead guilty to rigging bids for electronic equipment to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in government contracts.
Jeffrey Spencer, 51, of Canyon Country, and Christy Evereklian, 43, of Temecula, face a charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and they filed plea agreements on Wednesday agreeing to admit to the felony offense, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
Between 2015 and 2020, Spencer, whose job was to solicit bids for electronics, worked with his sister Evereklian, who submitted what “purportedly [were] independent and competitive bids” from her several companies, the DOJ said.
However, the siblings had already decided which company would submit the lowest bid, officials added.
“Evereklian submitted bids from her own companies to the FBI using the names of her relatives to conceal her control over bidding companies, and she used a random number generator to create the fraudulent bids,” the DOJ said.
The scheme netted the siblings at least $350,000 in contracts, officials said, and when they’re sentenced, they face up to five years in federal prison.