Liberty Gutierrez, Bribery Scheme, California 2021

A San Diego woman has been convicted of conspiring to launder millions of dollars from a Department of Defense bribery scheme. Liberty Gutierrez pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder the proceeds of a bribery scheme involving a former employee of the Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego, California, and various defense contractors.

According to Gutierrez’s plea agreement, the Naval Information Warfare Center employee, identified in court documents as “Individual-1,” solicited and accepted things of value from various defense contractors, including three defense contractors identified in her plea agreement as Contractor-1, Contractor-2, and Contractor-3. Among these gifts were jobs for friends and family, tickets to premier sporting events, and expensive dinners.

Gutierrez further admitted that Individual-1 solicited jobs for Gutierrez from these contractors. Although Gutierrez was employed full-time at a real estate and mortgage company in San Diego from April 2015 to February 2021, Individual-1 nonetheless obtained “full-time” jobs for Gutierrez at Contractor-1 from approximately October 2015 to September 2018; Contractor-2 from approximately April 2017 to July 2019; and Contractor-3 from approximately October 2018 to December 2019.

As part of her plea agreement, Gutierrez admitted to doing only minimal work at each of these jobs, and then falsely billing her time as if she were working full time on a government contract. Each of the contractors then passed along Gutierrez’s fraudulent labor charges to the United States Government for payment. Gutierrez further admitted that she agreed to give Individual-1 half of her salary from Contractor-2, or approximately $2,000 every month, in cash, some of which Individual-1 stashed in his golf bag.

In total, Gutierrez kicked back over $60,000 in cash to Individual-1 under this arrangement. As part of the conspiracy, Individual-1 additionally secured a job for his wife at Contractor-1 in approximately January 2017. As alleged in the Information, in exchange for these and other gifts, Individual-1, who was certified as a Contracting Officer Representative as part of his job at Naval Information Warfare Center, used his position to steer millions of dollars of contracts to his favored contractors.

Gutierrez admitted that as part of the conspiracy she received $593,210.09 in salary payments from Contractor-1, Contractor-2, and Contractor-3, which were intended to promote the bribery scheme and conceal and disguise the nature, source, and ownership of the proceeds of the bribery. Bribery and public corruption have no place in government contracting, and will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted, said Acting United States Attorney Randy S. Grossman. Grossman praised federal prosecutors Michelle Wasserman and Carling Donovan, as well as agents and investigators from Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Small Business Administration – Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General.

Gutierrez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Small Business Administration – Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General. Gutierrez is set to be sentenced at a later date.

Mandatory Facts: Defendant: Liberty Gutierrez, Crime: Conspiracy to commit money laundering, City and State: San Diego, California, Date: April 13, 2021, Sentence: To be determined.

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