Citing declining health due to multiple sclerosis, and the need for 24-hour assistance, one of the men who defrauded the federal government while working for the Savannah River Site MOX project is hoping to avoid a prison sentence of up to five years.
Phillip Thompson is instead requesting five years of probation, with the special condition of three years of home confinement with electronic monitoring.
That motion to depart from federal sentencing guidelines was submitted Friday to Judge J. Michelle Childs of U.S. District Court for South Carolina. Also known as a downward departure, this type of motion asks that a punishment be reduced to less than the minimum punishment given for a crime under federal statutes.
At the very least, Thompson’s request has delayed his prison sentencing, which was scheduled for Monday, April 23. Childs will consider the motion, and has not set a new date for sentencing.
In December 2015, the Justice Department indicted Thompson and his business partner, Aaron Vennefron, on 14 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and another count of theft of government funds. The two were accused of stealing $4.4 million from the government while subcontracting for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) – an unfinished plutonium recycling facility at the Energy Department site near Aiken, S.C.
Thompson and Vennefron, who founded Ohio-based AV Security, were hired as subcontractors in 2010 to provide goods and services for the MOX project. The two would fax invoices “listing nonexistent goods” and receive payments, according to the indictments.
After Thompson admitted to the government theft charge in February 2017, Vennefron did the same last June. The charge carries up to five years in prison, a fine of as much as $250,000, a maximum of three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.
