Vet Milked the Military: $1M Fraud

⏱ 3 min read

Donald Smith, 75, of Pittsburgh, isn’t a hero. A federal jury just slapped him with 13 counts of fraud and tax crimes for ripping off the U.S. military. The five-day trial revealed Smith ran a scheme to swindle the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) out of more than a million bucks, delivering substandard products while pocketing the cash. The verdict came down today, following just two hours of deliberation.

Smith’s company, details of which weren’t immediately released, received over $1 million in payments from 2019 to 2023. The feds say what the DLA got in return didn’t match the promises Smith made. And he didn’t bother filing a single corporate tax return for any of it. It’s a classic case of greed hitting the military supply chain.

The charges are serious. Each of the eight wire fraud counts carries a potential 20-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $250,000 – or twice the amount he stole, whichever is greater. The five tax evasion counts come with up to a year behind bars and a $100,000 fine per count. Sentencing is pending, and the actual punishment will depend on federal guidelines factoring in Smith’s history (if any).

The investigation was a joint effort by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Guappone and Barbara K. Doolittle put together the case and secured the conviction.