Temecula Woman, FBI Brother, Plead Guilty In $350K Procurement Scandal

TEMECULA, CA — A Temecula woman and her brother, the former lead electronics technician at the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, were charged Wednesday with conspiring to defraud the United States to obtain at least $350,000 in low-bid electronics equipment contracts from the FBI.

Christy Evereklian, 43, of Temecula, and her brother Jeffrey Spencer, 51, of Canyon Country, were both charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, as stated in a single-count information filing.

Both Spencer and Evereklian agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense, which carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. They are slated to enter their guilty pleas in the coming weeks in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles, according to a recent news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Over five years, from August 2015 through August 2020, Spencer and Evereklian collaborated to halt competitive bids for the FBI's electronic equipment "by deceitful and dishonest means," according to court records.

"Spencer, who was an FBI procurement official and solicited bids for electronic equipment, conspired with Evereklian to submit purportedly independent and competitive bids from Evereklian’s several companies for FBI contracts," according to the U.S. Attorney's office in a recent news release. "In fact, Spencer and Evereklian already had decided which company would submit the lowest – and presumably winning – bid for a contract."

Court documents show Evereklian submitted bids from her own companies to the FBI using the names of her relatives to conceal her control over bidding companies, and she used a random number generator to create the fraudulent bids, the release said.

In her plea agreement, Evereklian admitted that during the conspiracy, her companies won at least $350,000 in contracts from the FBI.

The United States Department of Justice Office of Inspector General investigated this matter as part of the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF). Assistant United States Attorney Jason Pang of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.