Washington, February 27: A Canadian citizen was sentenced for scheming to steal excess government property, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday.
Bradley A. Garner, 51, Canadian, but a resident of Palm Desert, California, worked out the plot with his half-brother Steven B. Smith, a former employee of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Smith misused a government computer to place claims on property such as boats, planes, vehicles and computers as a representative of the FAA that were meant to be transferred to other federal agencies.
Even though Smith was not authorized to place any holds for the FAA, he was able to claim items including two 27′ Boston Whaler boats, a Cessna airplane, a 50 foot yacht used in the Bahamas by the Drug Enforcement Administration, and a sailing yawl that had been used by the Naval ROTC program at the University of Washington.
Garner would then travel to the U.S. picking up the claimed goods worth thousands of dollars.
Garner was sentenced to 54 months in prison and three years of supervised release as both men were first arrested in Southern California in November 2008.
Smith is scheduled for trial later this year.
–IANS–