Beavers Guilty Plea
FORMER UNITED STATES COAST GUARD SUPERVISOR CONVICTED OF
MAIL FRAUD INVOLVING STOLEN COAST GUARD EQUIPMENT
BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr., announced that RAYMOND L. BEAVERS, age 48, of Denham Springs, Louisiana, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge James J. Brady to two counts of mail fraud and forfeiture. BEAVERS faces up to forty (40) years in prison, three (3) years of supervised release following imprisonment, a fine of $500,000, and forfeiture of all proceeds from the offense. The sentencing date has yet to be scheduled.
At today’s hearing, BEAVERS admitted that from approximately July of 2006 through June of 2008, Beavers served as Supervisor of the United States Coast Guard’s Electronic Support Detachment (“ESD”) at the Eighth District in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ESD is a sub-unit of the Coast Guard’s Electronic Support Unit, which provides technical support for all Coast Guard electronic systems and maintains a wide variety of electronics equipment on small boats, patrol boats, shore units, and other facilities.
Beginning in or about February of 2007 and continuing until in or about March of 2008, while supervising the ESD, BEAVERS devised a scheme to defraud the Coast Guard and others and to obtain money. The object of the scheme was to steal electronics equipment from the Coast Guard and sell the equipment for personal profit, often using eBay and PayPal, while misrepresenting such equipment as his own. BEAVERS admitted today that in 2007 and 2008, he sold approximately 28 network computer switches and several other items of the Coast Guard’s electronics equipment, having a value of more than $120,000.
Captain Jon Gage, Commander, CG Base New Orleans, stated, “We take matters like this very seriously in the Coast Guard. We make every effort to fully support investigations into these types of crimes and eventually hold the responsible party accountable. We are thankful for the great partnership and investigative efforts between CGIS, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and other federal agencies as well as Interpol, to bring this case to prosecution.”
U.S. Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr., stated, “We appreciate the strong work by the Coast Guard Investigative Service that uncovered the defendant’s scheme and led to this conviction. The defendant took equipment that was intended to be used by the Coast Guard to advance the Coast Guard’s vital mission and auctioned that equipment off over the internet, selling it to the highest bidders. We will continue to work aggressively to prosecute those who abuse their positions of trust to commit fraud.”
This investigation is being conducted by the United States Coast Guard Investigative Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Louisiana State Police and the Walker Police Department.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alan A. Stevens.
