AMENDED: Government Contractor Pleads Guilty To Submitting False Claims

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Thomas J. Cicatello, 32, of Woodbridge, Va., pleaded guilty today to charges of submitting false claims to the United States government totaling more than $40,000.

Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Robert Craig, Special Agent in Charge for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office (DCIS), made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.

Cicatello faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison when he is sentenced on May 15, 2014.

In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Cicatello admitted that from February 2011 through October 2011, while he was employed as a contractor providing image and data analysis services to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), he caused his employer to submit to the NGA time reports claiming he had worked for significant amounts of time when in fact he was not at work.  As part of his responsibilities, Cicatello reviewed geospatial intelligence to aid in the identification of improvised explosive devices in active war zones, including Afghanistan and Iraq.  The information he was responsible for preparing was used in reports provided to U.S. military personnel in those areas, who relied on the accuracy of the information they received to make strategic decisions.  In order to conceal his absences, Cicatello prepared false intelligence reports indicating “NSTR,” which meant nothing significant to report, without actually having reviewed the relevant material.

This case was investigated jointly by DCIS and NGA Office of Inspector General.   Assistant United States Attorney Timothy D. Belevetz is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.