Former Acting Inspector General Charged in Federal Fraud Scheme

A former acting inspector general for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been indicted on 16 counts of conspiracy to commit theft of government property and defraud the United States, theft of government property, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. A subordinate was indicted on the same charges as well as for destruction of records.

Charles K. Edwards, his subordinate Murali Yamazula Venkata, and unnamed others are alleged to have defrauded the US government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), along with sensitive government databases containing personal identifiable information (PII) of DHS and USPS employees. The ultimate purpose, prosecutors say, was for Edwards' company, Delta Business Solutions, to sell an enhanced version of the software to the Office of Inspector General for the US Department of Agriculture.

The conspiracy included reconfiguring laptops to provide customer service and demos to potential customers, storing PII on home-based servers for demo and development purposes, and retaining software developers in India to develop custom versions of the software for sale.

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