Businessman, Firm Indicted in Pentagon Billing Case : Crime: Federal government alleges double-billing scheme on contract to build dummy bombs for the military.

A small Oxnard defense contractor and its chief financial officer were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly stealing $800,000 from the Army in a double-billing scheme.

The grand jury in Los Angeles charges Del Manufacturing Co. and company executive Richard R. Ceniseroz, 41, of Oxnard each with three counts of theft and two counts of money laundering.

Ceniseroz faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison and a $1.85 million fine if convicted. He remains free and no date has yet been set for arraignment, prosecutors said. The company could be fined up to $2.7 million.

Ceniseroz, who runs the family-owned company, is charged with collecting twice on an $800,000 claim he made under a contract to produce practice bombs for the Army, Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles L. Kreindler said.

“It was an $800,000 claim that Del Manufacturing had settled with the government,” Kreindler said. “It was an $800,000 claim that was paid twice by the government.”

Both payments were made in 1988, but the double billing was not discovered until about two years ago during a routine contract audit, according to the FBI. The company’s Oxnard office was searched by the FBI in mid-1992.

Records show that Ceniseroz used two different billing procedures and funneled each payment into separate bank accounts, delaying government detection of the duplicate payment, investigators said.

However, an attorney representing one company owner, Terry Delgado, said Del Manufacturing is expected to plead not guilty.

Lawyer Marvin L. Rudnick of Pasadena said that the government began investigating criminal charges against Del Manufacturing only after the company filed its own civil suit demanding additional payments from the Army.

“This company sues the government to get money, and the government indicts them right back,” Rudnick said.

Kreindler denied Rudnick’s charge.

“That’s completely unfounded,” he said. “The investigation had nothing whatsoever to do with any civil litigation.”

Neither Ceniseroz nor his attorneys could be reached for comment.

Del Manufacturing is a small firm in the industrial section of Oxnard that has been run by the same family for decades, Rudnick said. The company had about 150 employees during the military buildup of the 1980s, but now has just six employees and has declared bankruptcy, he said.

The company built practice bombs for both the Army and the Navy, Kreindler said.