The Department of Justice announced a guilty plea Wednesday from a former FBI official from Canyon Country, who acknowledged benefiting from hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal bids, according to a news release.
The Santa Clarita Valley resident is accused of using his position to steer at least $350,000 in contracts to companies controlled by his sister, without previously acknowledging the conflict of interest, according to a DOJ news release Wednesday.
Jeffrey Spencer, 51, previously the lead electronics technician for the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, and his sister, a 43-year-old Temecula resident, entered into the agreements for a single felony count the same day the indictment was announced.
The offense carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, according to the DOJ statement.
Spencer and Christy Evereklian are expected to enter their guilty pleas in the coming weeks in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
For about five years starting in 2015, Spencer and Evereklian “conspired to defraud the United States by impeding the solicitation of competitive bids for electronic equipment by deceitful and dishonest means,” according to the release.
Spencer, a procurement official, solicited bids for electronic equipment, and worked with Evereklian “to submit purportedly independent and competitive bids from Evereklian’s several companies for FBI contracts,” according to the DOJ. “In fact, Spencer and Evereklian already had decided which company would submit the lowest — and presumably winning — bid for a contract. Evereklian submitted bids from her own companies to the FBI using the names of her relatives to conceal her control.”
The companies were based near where Evereklian lived in the San Diego County area. The criminal complaint cited examples of how the fake bids would be submitted, as well as the effort to conceal Evereklian’s connection.
“On Aug. 25, 2020, in response to a request for a bid from defendant Spencer for electronic equipment, defendant Evereklian emailed a bid from Maximum Media 37 LLC to the FBI for approximately $39,999.99. In the emailed bid, defendant Evereklian wrote that the bid was submitted by a relative, M.E., when, in fact, defendant Evereklian knew that the bid was submitted by defendant Evereklian.”
Evereklian admitted to the $350,000 figure in statements, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
