Information Technology Company Owner and Former NSA Contractor Facing Federal Indictment for Submitting False Claims for Hours Worked on a Government Contract

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury has indicted Jacky Lynn McComber, formerly Jacky Lynn Kimmel age 48, of Elkridge, Maryland, on the federal charges of submitting false claims and making false statements, in connection with the hours she claimed to have worked on a federal contract.  McComber is the CEO and owner of InfoTeK, an information technology (IT) services corporation.  At her initial appearance and arraignment today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, McComber pleaded not guilty and U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. DiGirolamo ordered that she be released pending trial.  The indictment was returned on February 25, 2021.

The indictment was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Robert P. Storch, Inspector General of the National Security Agency; and Special Agent in Charge Chris Dillard of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service - Mid-Atlantic Field Office.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is a component of the United States Department of Defense.  According to the indictment, from July 2011 until February 2018, the NSA had an ongoing contract, known as the Ironbridge contract, with InfoTeK to provide maintenance and enhancement support for the information technology and software requirements of the NSA’s National Security Operations Center (NSOC) and the Counter Terrorism Mission Management Center (CTMMC).  Because the subject matter of these contracts involved classified information, all of the work had to be performed at secure, access-controlled locations.  McComber was therefore required to be physically present at her assigned duty locations to do her work. InfoTeK billed the NSA on a monthly basis for the hours worked by its employees and contractors.

According to the 20-count indictment, the Ironbridge contract required InfoTeK to identify a Program Manager (PM) who would be responsible for overseeing InfoTeK’s performance of its contractual obligations and serving as InfoTeK’s point of contact with government officials.  From 2011 to 2013, several individuals, including McComber, served as the PM on the Ironbridge contract.  Starting in the summer of 2013, Individual A held the position of Senior Program Manager on the Ironbridge contract, until she was replaced by McComber in mid-March 2016.  McComber held the position through September 2017.  The indictment alleges that for 17 months, beginning in mid-March 2016 when McComber took over the PM position, she billed an average of 144 hours per month to the NSA for her supposed work.  In all, between March 14, 2016 and September 8, 2017, InfoTeK billed NSA for 2,603.5 hours of work on the Ironbridge contract allegedly performed by McComber in her role as Senior Program Manager.  NSA paid these charges in full, at a total cost of $388,878.78.

The indictment alleges that a subsequent review and comparison by the NSA OIG in the fall of 2017 of McComber’s NSA key card with the time InfoTeK billed for her work on the Ironbridge contracts established that McComber was not present at her duty station for 2,342.5 (90%) of the 2.603.5 hours she had recorded on her timesheets and that InfoTeK subsequently billed to NSA.  In addition to allegedly not being physically present at the worksite for the vast majority of hours she billed to the Ironbridge contract, the indictment alleges that McComber did not work the number of hours on the Ironbridge contract that she recorded on her timesheet.  For example, the indictment alleges that on occasions when McComber billed a full eight-hour day to the Ironbridge contract, she participated in charity events, attended her high school reunion,  vacationed in Texas and in Ocean City, Maryland, and performed other business development efforts on behalf of InfoTeK that were unrelated to the Ironbridge contract.  As a result of McComber’s alleged false claims as to the time she worked on the Ironbridge contract between April 2016 and September 2017, the indictment alleges that NSA substantially overpaid InfoTeK.

Finally, the indictment alleges that on October 3, 2017, McComber participated in a voluntary interview with NSA OIG investigators concerning allegations that she had charged the government for hours that she did not actually work.  McComber allegedly falsely claimed that she did not falsely fill out her timesheet or put any false information on it.  

If convicted, McComber faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each of 19 counts of submitting false claims and for one count of making false statements.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings. 

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the National Security Agency Office of Inspector General and DCIS for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jefferson M. Gray and Joyce K. McDonald, who are prosecuting the case.

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