Ex-Sandia National Laboratories employee Joshua Cordova has pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and now awaits a sentencing in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico after allegedly ripping off the government for somewhere between $75,000 and $140,000, according to a plea agreement filed last week.
Cordova, who helped train military, law-enforcement and emergency personnel at Sandia from 2011 through 2018, faced 63 counts of fraud but will plead guilty only to four. The government alleged he charged personal purchases to his company credit card and then lied about what he bought on invoices submitted to the labs.
The guilty pleas, two counts of mail fraud and two counts of theft and conversation of federal funds, amount to a few thousand dollars of ill-gotten goods, according to the plea agreement. Combined, these crimes carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Cordova had not been scheduled for a sentencing hearing at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
The two counts of mail fraud were for the 2018 purchases of a 1.4 carat white gold ladies wedding band, which cost $944, and a set of golf clubs that cost about $1,250, according to the plea arraignment. Cordova told his employer the ring was a pair of tripods and the clubs were a camera.
The counts of theft and conversation of federal funds cover purchases in 2017 and 2018 of “exercise equipment, a bicycle, dietary supplements, clothing, shoes, electronic games, barber chairs and a wedding band,” worth more than $1,000 in total, plus about more than $1,000 worth of “building materials and home appliances from Home Depot stores in Albuquerque and Los Lunas” for himself, his family and some associates, according to the plea deal.
