Former NSA Employee Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison In Corruption Scheme

Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced former NSA employee Robert Barry Adcock, age 44, of Parkville, Maryland today to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to obtain payments in return for taking actions as a National Security Agency (NSA) official and to making false statements to conceal the illegal payments from the NSA. Judge Bennett also ordered that Adcock: serve six months of his supervised release in home detention with electronic monitoring; perform 100 hours of community service; and pay a $15,000 fine and $4,929.90 in restitution, within 60 days.

“Adam Wayne Berg, Jeffrey Mark Harmon and Berg Bros Recycling, Inc. paid more than $110,000 to NSA employee Robert Barry Adcock,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “In return, the conspirators stole valuable recyclable metals from NSA without paying the full value.”

"This sentence is the end to a sad chapter and shows what can happen when greed and selfishness take precedent over integrity and responsibility," said Robert Craig, Special Agent in Charge for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Mid-Atlantic Field Office. "Mr. Adcock's behavior that corrupted the Government contracting process to line his own pockets, especially in context with today's budget concerns, simply cannot be tolerated. That contracting process must be transparent and above-board, certainly not clouded with fictitiously created companies and back room deals with large sums of money. The outcome of this investigation serves as an example that DCIS, its law enforcement partners and Department of Justice prosecutors, are committed to fully investigate and prosecute those that seek to circumvent the system."

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; George Ellard, Inspector General of the National Security Agency; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Special Agent in Charge Robert Craig of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service - Mid-Atlantic Field Office.

According to Adcock’s guilty plea, Adcock was designated on December 2, 2003 as the NSA contracting officer’s representative responsible for a waste removal contract, including removal of recyclable metals. Adam Berg was a corporate officer and son of the owner of Berg Bros. Recycling, Inc. located at 1401 West Hamburg Street in Baltimore, which received, processed and sold metal recyclables. Berg handled the company’s finances. Jeffrey Mark Harmon was the company’s president and was responsible for finding customers who brought metals to Berg Bros. and to whom Berg Bros. paid a fee for their metals.

NSA leased an area at Fort Meade from the U.S. Army where it stored copper communications cable, steel couplers for cable connections, discarded metal racks for large computer servers and other equipment. When the Army told NSA that it wanted the area back, Adcock directed that the metal recyclables be taken to Berg Bros. From March 30 to October 2004, NSA’s storage area was emptied and loads of metal recyclables were taken to Berg Bros. The Berg Bros.’ scale operator recorded NSA as the customer on each ticket, yet Harmon and Adam Berg secretly diverted the payments for these loads to Adcock. To do so, Adcock asked his father to open a bank account for SRK Development, a company Adcock’s father had formed, but which was dormant in 2004. The payments for all of the loads from clearing the Ft. Meade storage area were paid to SRK, either by checks issued to SRK or Adcock would drive to Berg Bros., typically on Friday afternoons, and pick up cash from Harmon or Adam Berg. In addition to the Ft. Mead metals, Adcock received payments from Berg Bros. over a nearly two year period for NSA metal recycling. In all, between May 2004 and March 2006 Harmon and Adam Berg caused Berg Bros. to make 39 payments to Adcock for loads from NSA totaling $104,989.84.

In April 2006, Harmon changed employment to a new metal recycling company and paid Adcock an additional $4,930.70 for loads from NSA.

In all, Adcock received over $110,000 in illicit payments from Berg Bros. and Harmon’s new employer, which Adcock failed to report on his financial disclosure form to NSA.

Adam Wayne Berg, age 48, of Stevenson, Maryland pleaded guilty to making illicit payments to Adcock and was sentenced on June 1, 2011 to six months in prison followed by a year of supervised release. Judge Bennett also ordered that Adam Berg: serve six months of his supervised release in home detention with electronic monitoring; perform 100 hours of community service; and pay a $30,000 fine. Also on June 1, 2011, Judge Bennett sentenced Berg Bros. Recycling, Inc. to three years probation and ordered the company to pay a fine of $130,000 for making an illicit payment to an NSA. The company and Adam Berg were ordered to pay restitution of $104,989.84, which has been paid in full.

Jeffrey Mark Harmon, age 44, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make illicit payments to Adcock and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Judge Bennett also ordered that Harmon: serve six months of his supervised release in home detention with electronic monitoring; perform 100 hours of community service; and pay a $25,000 fine and $4,929.90 in restitution.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Joyce K. McDonald and Mark Crooks, who prosecuted the case.