Local woman enters plea for fraud
By From staff reports
Published in News on May 23, 2014 1:46 PM
A Goldsboro woman is facing up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution on her guilty plea Thursday morning in federal district court in Raleigh on a charge of wire fraud.
According to court records, Hilda Parker, 57, owned and operated Parker Products, which operated as a broker of goods for the Defense Logistics Agency.
Between April 2007 and December 2007, Parker Products was awarded 217 purchase orders valued at $346,508.26 under a streamlined fast-pay purchase system.
According to court records, Parker Products failed to deliver on 29 (total value of $128,983.45) of the 217 purchase orders.
However, Ms. Parker falsely verified via wire shipment of the goods and received payments in connection with those 29 purchase orders.
Because of the fast-pay purchase system, DLA made payment on the verification rather than actual receipt of the goods ordered.
Some of the items ordered through Parker Products, Inc. were mission critical (e.g., a valve for a Navy ship leaving for Iraq or first-aid kits for deployed Marines). This resulted in the degradation of operational readiness for a number of military units.
Sentencing is scheduled for the Aug. 18 term of court.
The criminal investigation of this case was conducted by Defense Criminal Investigation Service. Assistant United States Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan is handling the prosecution of the case.