CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Former
Lockheed Martin Manager Gets 16 Months
21 Corporate Crime Reporter 42, October 23, 2007
The former deputy manager and treasurer for Lockheed Martin political action
committee was sentenced for his embezzlement of more than $160,000 in committee
funds.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman sentenced Kenneth D. Phelps III, 38, of Woodbridge, Virginia to 16 months in prison on charges of wire fraud and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Judge Friedman also ordered Phelps to pay more than $163,000 in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release upon the completion of his prison term.
On July 20, 2007, Phelps pleaded guilty to 12 counts of wire fraud and 12 counts of making false statements.
Phelps admitted that while serving as a deputy manager and treasurer for Lockheed
Martin Corporation, he took Lockheed Martin Employees' Political Action Committee checks totaling more than $160,000 and wrote the checks to himself instead of to federal political candidates or campaigns.
Phelps then forged the signatures of two Lockheed PAC executives who, unlike himself, had signatory authority and deposited those checks into his personal bank account for his personal use.
Phelps admitted that he wrote checks to himself in amounts commonly associated with federal political contributions made by Lockheed PAC in order to evade detection of his theft.
He also used Lockheed PAC's computer system to change the payee information concerning each check that he wrote to himself to make it appear that the check had actually been written to a federal political candidate or campaign.
Phelps concealed the existence of these payments from the FEC by electronically transmitting on behalf of Lockheed PAC and from its office in Arlington, Va., twelve required filings to the FEC's office in Washington, D.C., that contained false information concerning the true recipient of the checks.
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