Baltimore, Maryland – Jonathan Mickle, age 43, of Asheville, North Carolina, formerly of Taneytown, Maryland, pleaded guilty late yesterday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and to tax fraud, in connection with schemes to defraud the United States by illegally obtaining millions of dollars in federal contracts, and to defraud the employees of two Maryland corporations of their health and welfare benefits.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Steven Anderson, of the Washington Regional Office, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations; Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office; Marc I. Machiz, Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office of the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration; Special Agent in Charge Robert Craig of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service – Mid-Atlantic Field Office; Small Business Administration Inspector General Peggy E. Gustafson; and Brigadier General Keith M. Givens, Commander Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
According to his plea agreement, from 2004 through 2012, Mickle worked for Quantell, Inc. and Intaset Technologies Corporation, headquartered in Carroll County, Maryland, but with offices in Garrett County, Maryland and elsewhere. Quantell and Intaset provided labor services, including environmental science, engineering and information technology services, to federal and state agencies and the private sector. Shaun Tucker, and his wife, Joanne Tucker, were controlling officers and majority shareholders of Quantell, Inc. and Intaset Technologies Corporation.
During the course of Mickle’s employment, Quantell and Intaset obtained federal contracts and task orders. Mickle’s responsibilities included task order proposals and during the time period August 2004 to July 2005, Mickle worked as the Chief Operating Officer of Quantell. According to the plea agreement from at least 2005 to 2010, there were misrepresentations made by Quantell and Intaset, including that they were separate companies, in order for the companies to bid on federal government set-aside contracts designed to benefit small businesses.
If the companies had been treated as affiliated companies for contracting purposes, they would not have been eligible for the millions of dollars of small business contracts they obtained, including a 2011 multi-million dollar contract for work to be performed by Quantell at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Mickle assisted in Quantell and Intaset bidding on, and securing, government contracts, even though he knew that the information put in those bids was false. For example, by 2008 Mickle learned that the companies self-certified false information when bidding on government contracts, including false information about past revenue, the number of employees, the size and headquarters of the bidding company and the management and ownership of the bidding company.
Despite this knowledge, Mickle continued to work on the preparation of government contract bids. As a result, Quantell and Intaset fraudulently obtained government contracts worth more than $10 million. Many of the Quantell and Intaset contracts with the federal government were only available to companies that certified that they would use a portion of the money paid on the contract to provide bona fide health and welfare benefits to their employees pursuant to the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA).
From 2005 to 2008, SCA money paid to Quantell and Intaset under federal contracts was deposited into qualified employee health and welfare plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). However, Quantell and Intaset failed to provide the employees with the health and welfare benefits that they were promised, and instead used the money for other purposes, including the payment of Mickle’s salary and bonuses.
Mickle’s guilty plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Mickle has agreed to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation of Quantell and Intaset and their employees.
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Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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