One of the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing from the federal government while working for the MOX project at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is scheduled for sentencing on April 5.
Phillip Thompson will be sentenced at 10 a.m. by U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Columbia, S.C. He plead guilty in February 2017 to one charge of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds.
Thompson could face up to five years in prison, a fine of as much as $250,000, a maximum of three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.
In December 2015, the U.S. Justice Department charged Thompson and Aaron Vennefron on 14 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and another count of theft of government funds. After Thompson admitted to the government theft charge, Vennefron did the same in June.
The two were accused of stealing $4.4 million by filing false invoices while serving as subcontractors for work at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) – an unfinished plutonium recycling facility at the DOE site near Aiken, S.C. Vennefron is the founder of Ohio-based AV Security, and was hired in 2010 to provide goods and services for MOX. He and Thompson, his partner, would fax invoices “listing nonexistent goods” and receive payments, according to the indictments.
A sentencing hearing for Vennefron has not yet been scheduled.
Prior to the sentencing announcement, Childs ruled on Jan. 30 in favor of the federal government’s request to seize Vennefron’s money and property to help recoup the $4.4 million. “The United States may sell or otherwise dispose of any substitute assets in accordance with law as required to satisfy the above imposed money judgment,” she wrote.
