A Fayetteville, N.C. woman pleaded guilty in federal court last week on charges of wire fraud and money laundering arising out of schemes to defraud the Defense Department and businesses in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
According to court documents, from 2011 to 2020, Stephanie Dianna Elliott, 45, used aliases and more than a dozen business entities to obtain more than 1,000 federal defense contracts valued at more than $2.2 million.
According to allegations in the indictment, Elliott defrauded the DoD by obtaining contract payments after falsely certifying that she had shipped supplies to the U.S. military, when, in fact, the goods were not shipped.
“It is alleged that Elliott and/or businesses under her control were debarred from federal contracting on four occasions,” a Department of Justice release states. “Elliott allegedly circumvented the terms of her debarments by using aliases and various business names to continue bidding on federal contracts.”
Elliott also executed fraud schemes in connection with contracts with the State of North Carolina and other state governments.
“Elliott bid on contracts to supply food products and other goods,” the release continues. “After winning the contracts, Elliott defrauded third-party vendors by inducing them to deliver the goods to the state in satisfaction of Elliott’s contractual obligations.”
That allowed Elliott to obtain payment from state governments for these contracts but did not pay the victim vendors.
Elliott pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when sentenced on a date to be determined.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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