Sentencing has been scheduled for the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing $4.4 million from the federal government while conducting work for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Aaron Vennefron and Phillip Thompson will both be sentenced on May 24 by Judge J. Michelle Childs, of U.S. District Court for South Carolina.
In February and June of last year, Thompson and Vennefron, respectively, pleaded guilty to a count of theft of government funds. They had previously faced that charge, along with 14 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.
The charges stemmed from a December 2015 federal indictment that stated the two men colluded to steal money while working as subcontractors for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at Savannah River, which would convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel.
Working at AV Security, which Vennefron founded and started working for the MOX project in 2010, the two would fax in false invoices and receive payments for nonexistent goods, according to the indictment. All told, they stole $4.4 million from the federal government.
Their theft charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.
Last week was the first time a sentencing date has been announced for Vennefron, but Childs has given the federal government permission to take his money and possessions in order to recoup the stolen funds.
Thompson’s sentencing has been rescheduled multiple times. In a motion last week, his legal team asked Childs to hand down a lighter sentence for Thompson due to a medical condition. It states the 68-year-old suffers from multiple sclerosis, a disease of the nervous system that breaks down communication between the brain and the rest of the body.
Thompson is seeking five years of probation, with the special condition of three years of home confinement with electronic monitoring.
