The U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania released the below updated information on September 15th:
PHILADELPHIA
– United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Nicole K.
Schuster, 32, of Revere, Massachusetts was charged by Information with
disclosing contractor bid, proposal, and source information. Schuster was a
mechanical engineer and “project lead” employed by the United States Department
of the Navy (“the Navy”) at the Naval Foundry and Propeller Center in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (the “NFPC”).
According to the
Information, in or about early 2019, Schuster began working as the project lead
on a solicitation for a procurement contract for a submarine propeller-making
machine known as a VTC. During the contracting and bidding process, Schuster favored
one company, identified in the information as “Company 1,” over other competing
companies. Schuster urged her superiors to make the contract for this VTC a
“sole source” contract for Company 1. That is, she requested that the
contracting process should be established in a manner that would ensure that
Company 1 would be awarded the procurement contract. The NFPC and Defense
Logistics Agency agreed to favor Company 1 in this process but did not agree to
prevent other companies from pursuing the contract. Rather, they established a
process that allowed other contractors to submit information and compete for
the contract.
The information further
alleges that on or about September 14, 2019, Schuster sent a WhatsApp message
to a representative of Company 1 expressing her “loyalty” to Company 1 and
attaching to the message Company 2’s confidential and proprietary contractor bid,
proposal, and source selection information for its VTC. The documents that
Schuster provided to this representative of Company 1 were marked “SOURCE
SELECTION INFORMATION,” “OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” and “[Company 2] Proprietary
information.” The documents included cost and pricing data and proprietary
information about manufacturing processes and techniques. This disclosure gave
Company 1 a competitive advantage over Company 2 and other companies seeking to
obtain the VTC contract.
On or about April 28,
2020, the procurement contract for the VTC was awarded to Company 1 for a total
price of $15,254,608.
The case was
investigated by the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, Defense
Criminal Investigative Service and the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative
Service, Economic Crimes Field Office, and is being prosecuted by Assistant
United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.
An indictment, information, or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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