Anniston, AL – As originally reported by al.com a pair of civilian employees at the Anniston Army Depot have agreed to plead guilty in federal court to stealing nearly $550,000 worth of night scopes from a depot warehouse and selling them for roughly $160,000, according to court filings.
Stantillio Whitfield, a material examiner and identifier for the Defense Logistics Agency at the depot, and Tevin Fletcher, a material expeditor for the DLA at the depot, allegedly stole 50 AN/PVS-30 scopes from the DLA warehouse worth $10,395 apiece, according to the charges against both men filed Thursday in federal court in Birmingham.
The scopes were sold “at a substantially discounted price,” according to prosecutors, from October 2020 to September 2021.
A buyer in Texas bought the scopes for between $1,600 and $1,700 on three separate occasions between March 5, 2021, and April 19, 2021, prosecutors alleged.
Whitfield received $160,524.61 from people who bought the scopes and sent about $35,000 of the proceeds to a “coconspirator” in the case, presumably Fletcher, via 21 separate transactions on Cash App, according to court records.
Both Whitfield and Fletcher were charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and both men agreed to plead guilty to the charge in exchange for a sentence lower than the five-year maximum.
They also agreed to pay $546,750 — the fair market value of the scopes — in restitution to the Department of Defense.
A judge has yet to sign off on the plea deal.
