Three US Navy workers, indicted in June for conspiring to defraud the Department of Defense in a travel-voucher scheme, pleaded guilty and now face a sentence of up to 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 worth fine, the Sun Herald reports.
The confession of guilt comes after the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in Gulfport launched a probe of navy workers from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Center (NMCB), targeting workers assigned to NMCB 74.
As specified in the indictment, Rebecca Clemons Hickman, Richard Stephen Bellock and Iralen Jewel were suspected of making false claims for illegal payments ranging from October 2006 to August 2011.
At least five other Navy workers, now in prison, were also indicted in the NCIS probe, of whom some had admitted receiving tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent travel vouchers, according to the Sun Herald.
The federal court is expected to pronounce final sentences to the said trio in February, next year.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, December 30, 2013; Image: Wikimedia