POINT MUGU : 2 More Charged in Fraud Investigation

A continuing federal investigation into purchasing fraud at the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station and Unocal Corp. produced charges this week against two more individuals by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Alfred T. Morrison, 45, of Carpinteria, a current Unocal employee, and Richard Tingstrom, 48, of Santa Barbara, a former Unocal employee, were charged with income tax evasion in connection with the fraud, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Patricia A. Beaman.

Morrison, a mechanic on an oil platform off the Ventura County coast, and Tingstrom, a former platform foreman, were charged with filing false income tax returns.

According to court papers, Morrison reported 1985 taxable income of $30,153 and $4,749 in taxes due the government. According to an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Morrison’s income for that year was actually $40,538 and that his tax obligation was $9,039.

Tingstrom reported 1985 taxable income of $50,723, and declared that he owed $10,852 in taxes for that year, prosecutors said. Instead, prosecutors charged, his real income was $63,398, and that he owed $16,666 in taxes.

According to federal investigators, Morrison and Tingstrom received illegal cash gratuities in exchange for doing business with Bill M. Frazier, 45, of Camarillo and now-defunct Anderson Industrial Supply of Oxnard.

Frazier, Martin S. Anderson, 44, who was president of the Oxnard firm, and Erwin H. Muller, 49, of Camarillo pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to defraud Unocal and the Navy base on purchases of industrial equipment between 1984 and 1989.

Morrison and Tingstrom are scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on May 4, Beaman said.