Army Contracting Official Charged in Parts Investigation
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 3 (UPI) — A civilian contract officer with the U.S. Army has been charged in federal court with obstructing an audit of parts purchased for Russian-made helicopters.
The U.S. Justice Department identified the contractor as Teresa Mayberry, 54, of Huntsville, Ala., who worked with the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal at the time of the alleged obstruction.
“Mayberry created a series of false documents that she provided to DODIG [Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General] to obstruct its 2012 audit of an Army contract to purchase parts for Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters,” according to the chargeannounced by announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Mayberry has entered a plea agreement with the government, also filed today in District Court, in which she acknowledges the charge against her and states her intention to plead guilty.”
According to information filed Tuesday, in late 2011 and 2012 DODIG was investigating contracts for spare parts — worth more than $8 million — for Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters to ascertain whether the Army paid a reasonable price for the parts, whether the parts purchased were needed, and whether proper contracting procedures were followed. Mayberry was involved in implementing the parts contract, which she had signed on behalf of the United States.
In the course of the investigation, DODIG several times requested contracting documents from Mayberry related to the decisions to purchase spare parts.
“On several occasions, Mayberry prepared, and directed her subordinates to prepare, a variety of false and backdated documents that she provided to DODIG in response to its requests, according to the information,” the Justice Department news release said. “As an example, the information charges that Mayberry caused the creation of a backdated document, bearing her signature, which falsely represented that price negotiations had taken place on parts purchases.”
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Defense Department’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division are working jointly in the investigation of fraud and corruption in Mi-17 helicopter contracting.
The maximum penalty for the charge against Mayberry is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
