GREENBELT, MD – Brian Hooper, 42, of Woodbridge, Virginia, will spend the next 27 months behind bars after being sentenced today for his role in a brazen scheme to steal over $1 million from a global consulting company. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel also ordered Hooper to forfeit assets and pay restitution totaling $1,031,571.96 – every penny of the damage he helped inflict.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Stephen E. Vogt, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI’s investigation peeled back layers of deception, revealing a calculated effort to exploit a legitimate business for personal gain.
Court documents reveal that co-defendant Janice McCumbie, an employee at the consulting firm with offices in Maryland and beyond, was responsible for processing client refunds. Clients routinely paid large retainers, and refunds were issued when retainers exceeded work performed or duplicate payments occurred. Hooper, seeing an opportunity, introduced McCumbie to a co-conspirator in 2008. McCumbie then began issuing fraudulent refund checks – six of them, totaling $121,081.22 – to this individual in exchange for a cut of the ill-gotten gains. Hooper and McCumbie shared the proceeds from five of those checks.
But the scam didn’t stop there. In 2009, Hooper upped the ante, introducing McCumbie to Leonard Smedley, another outsider with no connection to the consulting company. Over the next four years, McCumbie issued a staggering 42 false refund checks to Smedley, totaling $910,490.74. Again, the proceeds were split between McCumbie, Hooper, and Smedley. This wasn’t a momentary lapse in judgment; it was a sustained, deliberate criminal enterprise.
Hooper isn’t the only one facing consequences. Leonard Smedley II, 35, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, received an 18-month prison sentence and restitution order of $910,490. Amber Gayleard, 29, of Schuylkillhaven, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 21 months and ordered to pay $217,695.57 in restitution. Janice McCumbie, 45, of Marydel, Maryland, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 12, 2015. The web of deceit is slowly being untangled, and those responsible are being held accountable.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leah Jo Bressack and David Salem prosecuted the case, earning praise from Rosenstein for their diligent work. The FBI’s investigation, a testament to their commitment to uncovering financial crimes, has brought down a sophisticated scheme and returned a measure of justice to the victimized consulting firm. This case serves as a stark warning: exploiting legitimate businesses for personal profit will not go unpunished.
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Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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