Woman Charged in Connection With Fraud : Point Mugu: Secretary is accused of filing a false tax return but contends she was acting in good faith.

Federal prosecutors charged another Ventura County resident Thursday in an expanding investigation of a massive fraud scheme involving bogus invoices at Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

Prosecutors charged secretary Terry L. Bray of Camarillo with one count of filing a false tax return, alleging that she ran a dummy company for Bill M. Frazier of Camarillo that bilked the military out of $55,000. Frazier, who pleaded guilty late last year to conspiracy and fraud, was sentenced Nov. 30 to two years in federal prison.

“I’m just a person who made a mistake,” Bray said Thursday, adding that she has paid the back taxes.

“I was stupid. I trusted the man. . . .” she said. “I was talked into doing something I thought was legitimate, and it wasn’t, and I paid for it.”

She added: “At the time I filed my taxes, I thought I was being honest.”

Bray was charged with a single count of filing a false federal income tax return, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Patricia A. Beaman. Prosecutors had agreed not to charge Bray in exchange for her promise to testify against Frazier had he gone to trial, Beaman said.

The charge filed against Bray in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles stemmed from a three-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, the Postal Inspection Service and the Naval Investigative Service into fraud at the Navy base.

The fraud involved orders placed for industrial merchandise--such as plumbing and electrical supplies--by purchasing agents and others from off-base suppliers.

Bogus invoices then were signed by civilian Navy employees, who indicated that they had received the goods and demanded payment from the base for nonexistent merchandise, according to court papers.

As a salesman for Anderson Industrial Supply, Frazier handled the Point Mugu Navy base account from 1984 to 1986. He acquired Camarillo Tool and Supply Co. on Oct. 10, 1986, according to court papers.

According to Beaman, Frazier also had Bray set up and operate a dummy company, Bray Plumbing and Electrical Supply.

From Aug. 5, 1988, to Dec. 10, 1988, Frazier and others operated Bray Plumbing and Electrical Supply, a fictitious company that did little or nothing more than supply bogus invoices to Point Mugu, which Frazier and Anthony C. Beckman, Joseph M. Vach and Gary D. Roberson used to defraud the government, court papers say.

Bray Plumbing and Electrical Supply was responsible for about $55,000 in bogus invoices for merchandise such as light bulbs, pipes and pumps that were never delivered, a government source said.

Frazier would use an invoice to get payment from the Navy, then would split the money with civilian employees in the Navy disbursing office who were in on the scheme, the source said.

Late last fall, Frazier, Beckman, Vach and Roberson pleaded guilty to a variety of charges.

A federal judge sentenced Frazier on Nov. 30 to two years in prison for conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud and ordered him to pay restitution to the Navy and an oil company that was also victimized in the scheme. The other three also received two-year sentences and orders to pay restitution.

Bray faces a single count of filing a false federal income tax return for the 1988 tax year. The form stated that Bray’s personal income was $6,868.18 and her tax was $1,031, when in fact her income was $16,471.51 and her tax was $3,586, according to the charge filed Thursday.

Bray probably will be arraigned within the next 10 days, Beaman said.

If convicted, Beaman said, Bray faces up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine, plus an order to pay her taxes.