Employee Admits to $240K Theft from Landover Company

LANDOVER, MD — A man who stole $240,000 from the Landover company he worked for lied on his job application and then lied about business leads to his employer, federal authorities said.

James Charlton Davis III, 57, of Anderson, SC, pleaded guilty Tuesday to wire fraud.

According to his plea agreement, from May 7, 2012 to March 13, 2013, Davis was the director of the electrical division for a Landover firm that provided construction and preconstruction services to federal agencies. When applying for his job, Davis said he had earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he had not attended MIT. Part of his duties were to develop new business for the company.

Davis falsely told company executives that he knew executives at several corporate entities, and that he was pursuing contracts with the businesses. Davis created and falsely registered online domain names that closely resembled legitimate domain names associated with several of the firms.

Prosecutors say Davis used these fake domains to send emails to himself and others at his employer to legitimize the fictional contracts he claimed to obtain.

In July 2012, Davis told his employer that he had procured contracts with a technology company in San Jose, CA, to build cell towers in Alpharetta, GA. Davis communicated with himself via email using the stolen identity of an individual, in connection with fictitious contracts with the tech company, and with other corporate entities about upgrades to their data centers.

As part of his work to obtain and perform contracts, Davis traveled extensively and incurred bills for expensive dinners and accommodations. Prosecutors say Davis was reimbursed by his employer for travel, meals, equipment and labor costs – all of which was falsified by Davis.

Because of Davis’s fraudulent emails, his employer believed that demand for its services had grown exponentially. As a result, his employer stopped pursuing additional contracts, sought larger lines of credit and hired additional personnel.

In March of 2013, his employer learned of the fraud scheme when none of the invoices being submitted to these corporate “clients” -- the fictional contacts at these companies -- were paid. As Davis’s employer contacted the firms independently, they all confirmed that they had no business dealings with Davis.

Davis has agreed to forfeit and pay restitution of $240,000, the minimum amount of loss to his employer.

If the court accepts the plea agreement, Davis will be sentenced on June 2 to between 57 months and seven years in prison.