A former contracting official at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico swindled the government out of more than $2 million by steering a lab contract to a moving company she founded, according to an indictment filed this week with the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.
In 2010, while employed at the Department of Energy nuclear weapons lab, defendant Carla Sena created a moving company called Movers LLC, which later went by other names, the U.S. attorney alleged in court papers dated Tuesday. Sena worked at Sandia from 2006 to 2017, according to the indictment.
To create the company and conceal her involvement with it, Sena used the identities of her daughter and an individual employed by Sena’s father to set up a post-office-box address and bank account for Movers LLC, according to the indictment.
In 2011, Sena rigged a competition at Sandia for a $2.3-million moving-services contract to favor Movers LLC. Sena herself awarded the contract to Movers LLC, which through 2016 collected substantially the entire sum of the contract, federal prosecutors alleged.
Meanwhile, from 2013 through 2015, Sena transferred “at least $643,000” that Movers LLC fraudulently obtained from the government to a pair of companies owned by her father. Of that, Sena took “[a]t least $600,000” for herself, according to the indictment.
Sena faces three counts of wire fraud, one count of major fraud, and seven counts of money laundering. If convicted, she would have to turn over the money from her schemes, or any property she acquired with it, to the government. The government could also seize Sena’s personal property to help recoup its losses, according to the indictment.
Under federal law, each count of wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, plus possible fines. Major fraud is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and up to a $1-million fine. Of the seven counts of money laundering with which Sena is charged, five carry a maximum sentence each of 20 years imprisonment and fines; the other two each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, plus fines.
Sena was arrested Tuesday in Santa Rosa, N.M., and pleaded “not guilty” on all counts before a magistrate judge Wednesday. She was released on her own recognizance after entering her plea. The judge in the case had not scheduled a trial at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
