Contractor Admits to Bilking U.S.

Admitting she spent money from federal contracts on everything from personal vacations to canvas window shades for her home, the president of a Camarillo-based company pleaded guilty Tuesday to misusing government funds.

Raydean Marie Acevedo, one of the nation’s most prominent minority contractors, admitted to bilking the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for a fishing trip to Yellowstone, a bike trip in Seattle and a trip to Florida to see her in-laws, according to a plea settlement reached in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Acevedo pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to a government agency, specifically billing the government for the window shades that adorn her Colorado home. She agreed to pay fines and restitution totaling $158,908. Her firm will pay back nearly $1 million to the government.

The plea agreement resolves all criminal and civil matters against her.

Acevedo is president of Research Management Consultants Inc., which has obtained more than $100 million in government contracts over the past decade.

The firm has offices in Camarillo, Lakewood, Colo., and McLean, Va. All company billing went through the Camarillo office, which is why the case was prosecuted in California.

The government has spent five years, untold hours and an estimated $200,000 to prosecute the case, authorities said. But FBI Special Agent Gary G. Auer said the deterrent effect of prosecuting cases like this makes it worthwhile.

“It is the policy of the U.S. attorney’s office . . . to aggressively pursue cases where there is a probability of substantial fraud in the government contracting process,” said Auer, who heads the FBI’s Ventura County office.

The FBI, the Navy Criminal Investigative Unit and the Defense Contract Audit Administration cooperated on the fraud case, executing a search warrant in 1994 and seizing office files. Agents then plowed through hundreds of boxes of documents in tiny print detailing company finances, Auer said.

The firm’s executive vice president, Walter Irving Jenkins III of Morrison, Colo., entered three guilty pleas to three federal charges in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last July.

Jenkins, who authorities say is Acevedo’s boyfriend, was sentenced in October to eight months of home detention, three years of probation, 450 hours of community service and ordered to pay $127,600 in fines and restitution.

Jenkins submitted false statements to his business, in which he charged personal expenses as overhead on various government contracts.

Among the items he sought repayment for were an “infrared cooker for heating samples in [a] laboratory,” which turned out to be a backyard patio grill, and a “management seminar” that was actually an Arizona river rafting trip.

Jenkins also sought reimbursement for travel expenses, claiming he did “work in Denver office,” which was a bicycling vacation in Utah.

Using a similar ruse, Acevedo, according to the criminal count, charged the government $415 for “office fixtures” for the Camarillo office, when in actuality she bought the shades for her Colorado home.

She also billed the government $2,484 for furniture for her home.

“And then there were the vacations,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel J. O’Brien said.

Those included a fishing trip to Yellowstone for $1,650, billed as a meeting with a National Park Service personnel director; a Seattle bike trip for $827, billed as a “meeting with the FAA” and a trip to see her in-laws in Florida for $766, billed as another business trip.

In federal court Tuesday, Acevedo, dressed in a dark suit and flat shoes, appeared sick and remorseful.

“I tried to share my thoughts with you in my letter,” Acevedo told U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson in a thin voice weakened by laryngitis. “I hope that will give you my honest feelings about what’s happened here. I hope as well that I will be able to continue to provide jobs to people, and to try to make a contribution to people--that’s what I want out of this.”

With that, Pregerson sentenced Acevedo to three years’ probation, 250 hours of community service, and more than $1 million in fines and restitution. Acevedo will be permitted to travel, provided she gives her probation officers sufficient notice and an itinerary.

After the sentencing, Acevedo confirmed her company is still open and will continue providing consulting and management services to various government agencies, including the Navy.

“While this investigation has very much hurt the company, Acevedo and the company are determined to forget and move beyond this--to continue to provide the high quality services they are known for,” her attorney, Janean Daniels, said.

Daniels and Acevedo said the company has won numerous business awards.

“Hopefully, the plea agreement will allow all of that to happen,” Daniels added.