FORMER ACTING INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY INDICTED ON THEFT OF GOVERNMNET PROPERTY AND SCHEME TO DEFRAUD THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Columbia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 6, 2020
FORMER ACTING INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY INDICTED ON THEFT OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY AND SCHEME TO DEFRAUD THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a sixteen-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the United States government as part of a scheme to defraud the United States government.
U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Shea for the District of Columbia, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb for the United States Postal Service made the announcement.
The indictment charges Charles K. Edwards, 59, of Sandy Spring, Maryland, and Murali Yamazula Venkata, 54, of Aldie, Virginia, with conspiracy to commit theft of government property and to defraud the United States, theft of government property, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The indictment also charges Venkata with destruction of records. The indictment, which was returned on Thursday, March 5, 2020, was unsealed this morning after Edwards and Venkata were taken into custody under the charges. Both defendants will be presented for an initial appearance at 1:45 p.m. today before United States Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather.
According to the allegations in the indictment, from October 2014 to April 2017, Edwards, Venkata, and others executed a scheme to defraud the United States government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from the Office of the Inspector General of DHS (DHS-OIG), along with sensitive government databases containing personal identifying information (“PII”), so that Edwards’s company, Delta Business Solutions, could later sell an enhanced version of DHS-OIG’s software to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA-OIG”) at a profit. Although Edwards had left DHS-OIG in December 2013, he continued to leverage his relationship with Venkata and other DHS-OIG employees to steal the software and the sensitive government databases.