U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett also ordered Christina Turley Knott, 50, to pay $300,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Maryland.
Knott pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to fraudulently billing NSA and failing to pay taxes on the millions of dollars she embezzled from her father’s manufacturing company.
The sentencing comes just days after her father, William Turley, 71, and brother, Donald Turley, 54, of Owings, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison, one year of home detention and three years of supervised release for the NSA fraud scheme, which swindled the agency out of $1.45 million over a decade.
Following a weeklong jury trial in December, William Turley, owner of Upper Marlboro-based Bechdon Co., and his son, the program manager for the company, were found guilty of conspiring to commit and committing wire fraud arising from a billing scheme.
Federal prosecutors said the father and son sought security clearances with NSA in 2006 and 2007 to allow their company to bid on classified NSA contracts and have access to more opportunities to submit false invoices to the agency.
While conducting interviews and polygraph exams, which are mandatory for clearance, the elder Turley admitted to “moving time around” on the NSA contract and admitted it was illegal.
Also, during an interview, the younger Turley admited to inflating the time he’d recorded working NSA jobs and said he’d also instructed company employees to inflate the hours they worked on NSA jobs.
Prosecutors said Knott knew about the scheme, and may have used the knowledge to get away with her own crime.
They said the father and son discovered that Knott, who worked as bookkeeper at the family business, embezzled $4.5 million from the company. But the Turleys did not pursue any claim against Knott out of fear she would reveal their scheme to defraud the NSA.
Prosecutors said Knott did not report the embezzled money as income on her 2004 federal income tax return.hrawlyk@capgaznews.com
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