Former Employee Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison for Her Role in $900,000 Embezzlement Scheme Against XM Satellite Radio
She Conspired to Take Money Intended for Vendors
| U.S. Attorney’s Office August 16, 2012 |
WASHINGTON—Brenda L. Jones, 46, of Lothian, Maryland, was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for taking part in a scheme to embezzle more than $900,000 from her former employer, XM Satellite Radio, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Jones pled guilty to a conspiracy charge in January 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was sentenced by the Honorable Reggie B. Walton. Upon completion of her prison term, Jones will be placed on three years of supervised release. As part of the plea agreement, Jones agreed to a money judgment of $908,924, representing the amount of proceeds from the crime.
According to a statement of offense submitted to the court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Schornstein, Jones worked from July 2005 until July 2006 at XM Satellite Radio (now known as Sirius XM Radio Inc.), a corporation based in Washington, D.C., as an administrator in the Accounts Payable Department, a branch of the controller’s office. Jones’s duties included responsibility for payments to commercial vendors.
From 2005 until at least 2008, Jones and a coordinator in the Accounts Payable Department, Valencia Person, embezzled nearly $909,000 from the company. They secretly diverted at least 26 payments, which were supposed to go to XM vendors, to bank accounts held by Jones. They covered up the activities by altering data in the company’s accounting system. Jones then gave a portion of the money to Person.
Jones resigned in 2006. However, more than $690,000 of the money was transferred into her accounts after she had left the company.
Person, 54, of Suitland, Maryland, pled guilty in March 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Judge Walton sentenced her on August 9, 2012, to a 15-month prison term. Upon completion of the prison term, Person will be placed on three years of supervised release. In addition, as part of the plea agreement, Person agreed to a money judgment of $908,924.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen and Assistant Director in Charge McJunkin praised those who worked on the case, including the special agents of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, as well as former Legal Assistant Jared Forney of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They also commended the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Schornstein, who prosecuted the case.