Soldiers admit selling U.S. government computers

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Douglasville soldier was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in jail for selling more than $185,000 worth of stolen U.S. government computers.

Earl Lamont Smith, 38, admitted to pocketing the money from the sale of thousands of surplus government computers he claimed would be sent to soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Smith was also ordered to repay $153,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release, authorities said.

Along with Smith, 43-year-old Harold Grady of West Moreland, Tenn., and Gregory Murray, 48, of Harrison, Tenn., were sentenced to house arrest for three months and two months – respectively – and ordered to repay a total of $22,313, and while on probation perform community service.

It was unclear at this writing what, if any, punishment the U.S. Army Reserve handed down to Smith, Murray and Grady.

All three men confessed to their part in the scam in December.

“This case reminds us that even those we trust to protect us are capable of criminal conduct,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said. "These defendants were soldiers who abused the trust and betrayed the honor due members of our military services when they manipulated the system for their own private benefit.”

According to court records, the three soldiers were stationed at Army Reserve centers in Tennessee when they discovered that they could request surplus computers and other equipment through a federal program that makes such hardware available to other U.S. agencies in need.

But the equipment had to remain government property being used for official federal business, the rules of the program stipulated.

The three men filed bogus paperwork to obtain the computers and equipment, saying it would be used for Army purposes.

Smith, in particular, wrote fake letters – filed on a phony letterhead – claiming the computers he requested were to be sent to soldiers in Iraq.

Then he sold the computers to computer stores in Georgia and Tennessee, authorities said.

Grady and Murray sold computers through Internet, newspaper and magazine listings, court officials said.