Minority Contractor Admits Fraud

Admitting that she spent money from federal contracts on everything from personal vacations to window shades for her home, one of the nation’s most prominent minority contractors pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court Tuesday to misusing government funds.

Raydean Marie Acevedo, the president of a Camarillo-based company, admitted to bilking the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay expenses including a $1,650 fishing trip to Yellowstone, a bicycle trip in Seattle that cost $827 and a trip to Florida to see her in-laws, billed as a business trip at a cost of $766, according to a plea settlement reached in U.S. District Court.

She pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to a government agency--specifically, billing the government for canvas window shades for her Colorado home. She agreed to personally pay fines and restitution totaling $158,908. Her firm will repay the government almost $1 million.

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

Acevedo is president of Research Management Consultants, 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, so 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.

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’ home detention, three years’ 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.

In federal court Tuesday, Acevedo 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 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 the fines and restitution. Acevedo will be permitted to travel, provided that she gives her probation officers sufficient notice and an itinerary.