Business Owner Sentenced For Wire Fraud

RALEIGH – United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that today in federal court, HILDA PARKER , 57, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release for wire fraud by Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever III. She was also ordered to pay $128,983.45 in restitution due in full immediately.  PARKER previously pled guilty to that charge on May 22, 2014.

According to information in the public record, HILDA PARKER owned and operated Parker Products, which operated as a broker of goods for the Defense Logistics Agency (“DLA”).  Between April 2007 and December 2007, Parker Products was awarded 217 purchase orders valued at $346,508.26 under a streamlined fast-pay purchase system.  With respect to 29 of the 217 purchase orders (total value of $128,983.45), Parker Products failed to deliver the goods ordered. HILDA PARKER, however falsely verified via wire shipment of the goods and received payments in connection with those 29 purchase orders.   Because of the fast-pay purchase system, DLA made payment on the verification rather than actual receipt of the goods ordered.

Some of the items ordered through HILDA PARKER d/b/a/ Parker Products, Inc. were mission critical.  According to Betty J. Lavery, Contracting Officer for the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, one of the undelivered purchase orders was identified an “emergency buy” – a designation reserved for an acquisition so urgently needed that a delay would result in a “serious injury” to the Government.  Specifically, PARKER failed to deliver a repair/replacement part needed in a Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) operated by the U.S. Marine Corps and which was scheduled to be loaded aboard a ship leaving for Iraq. Her failure to deliver the needed part by the delivery date, as well as her other delivery failures, resulted in the degradation of operational readiness for a number of military units.

The criminal investigation of this case was conducted by Defense Criminal Investigation Service.  Assistant United States Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan is handling the prosecution of the case.