The sister of a former technician at the FBI’s Los Angeles bureau was sentenced Friday to pay an $8,000 fine and serve three years of probation for her role in a bid-rigging scheme operated by her brother.
Christy Evereklian, 44, of Temecula, pleaded guilty in October in L.A. federal court to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Her brother, Jeffrey Spencer, 51, of Canyon Country, pleaded guilty to the same charge and is expected to be sentenced on June 5.
Spencer admitted manipulating the outcome of bidding for contracts at the FBI office, allowing his sister’s electronic companies to win at least $350,000 in equipment agreements.
According to their plea agreements, from August 2015 through August 2020, the siblings conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing the solicitation of competitive bids for electronics.
Spencer, whose job involved soliciting bids, worked with his sister to submit purportedly independent and competitive bids from Evereklian’s companies for FBI contracts, court documents show.
In fact, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Spencer and Evereklian already had decided which company would submit the lowest — and presumably winning — bid. Evereklian submitted bids from her own companies to the FBI using the names of her relatives to conceal her involvement, and used a random number generator to create the fraudulent bids, prosecutors said.
Evereklian further admitted in her plea agreement that during the conspiracy, her companies won at least $350,000 in contracts from the FBI.