Three DHS ex-employees sentenced for conspiring to steal data of over 200,000 gov’t workers

Three former employees of the Department of Homeland Security — including its onetime acting watchdog — have been sentenced for conspiring to steal personal data of hundreds of thousands of government workers from law enforcement databases.

Former acting Inspector General Charles Edwards was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in prison Friday after pleading guilty in January 2022 to conspiracy to steal government property and defraud the US and theft of government property.

Two DHS IT workers, Murali Venkata and Sonal Patel, received four months in prison and two years of probation, respectively.

Patel had pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy count in April 2019, while Venkata was convicted by a federal jury in April 2022 of theft, wire fraud, destruction of property and conspiracy.

Prosecutors say that the trio cooked up a plan to pilfer government software and employee information from the databases, with the goal of creating a commercial case management software system that Edwards’ company, Maryland-based Delta Business Solutions, would sell back to the feds.

The more than 200,000 employees whose information was stolen had worked for the inspector general’s office at either the Department of Homeland Security or the US Postal Service, where all three conspirators had previously been employed.

Upon learning of the investigation, Venkata wiped out “incriminating text messages and other communications” to impede authorities, prosecutors alleged.

Edwards, 63, exited his acting IG post in late 2013 after a Senate inquiry concluded he was too cozy with officials that he was supposed to be supervising.

Edwards had also been accused of flouting nepotism rules by employing his wife as an auditor in his office and taking multiple trips on the taxpayer’s dime from DC to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where he was earning a computer and information sciences degree at Nova Southeastern University, in 2011 and 2012.

The watchdog was further accused by lawmakers of giving bonuses to employees who helped him complete school assignments and write his dissertation, and retaliating when employees complained about his conduct. Edwards denied any wrongdoing at the time.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.