A pretrial conference has been scheduled for later this month for two men accused of stealing more than $4 million from the federal government while working at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF).
In December 2015, the Department of Justice announced the indictment of Aaron Vennefron of Hamilton, Ohio, and Phillip Thompson of Augusta, Ga., for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft of government funds.
On Jan. 31, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote in a notice that the defendants would appear in court on Feb. 27 in Columbia, S.C. Vennefron and Thompson could use the pretrial conference as an opportunity to plead guilty, in which case a plea hearing will take place following the conference. If not, jury selection in the case is expected on March 6 in Columbia.
Vennefron and Thompson are accused of conspiring to defraud the government by creating fraudulent invoices for payment of goods they claimed were needed for construction of the MFFF – an unfinished plutonium recycling facility at the Department of Energy facility near Aiken, S.C.
The indictment states that Vennefron created Ohio-based AV Security in 2010 for “the sole purpose of submitting false invoices for nonexistent goods.” Vennefron worked with Thompson, a senior representative for the MOX project through his work at Wise Services, according to the indictment. The company was created in 1993 to serve as a subcontractor at a Department of Energy facility on Ohio. Wise added services in South Carolina when it was hired as a subcontractor for the MOX project, DOJ said.
