Two Atlanta women — a vendor and a manager working at Dobbins Air Reserve Base — were indicted Thursday on charges they used the no-bid process to enrich themselves and others.
The 15-count indictment charges Raytosha Elliott, a former Georgia Department of Defense contracting official, and vendor Angela Thicklin with conspiracy and bribery of a public official. Elliott, 34, is also charged with conspiring with a third woman who has already pleaded guilty for her role in the illegal kickback operation.
Elliott was an engineering operations manager at the Clay National Guard Center at Dobbins between May 2007 an April 2012 and had the authority to award contracts valued at less than $5,000 without going through the bidding process.
Federal authorities said Elliott awarded several of those contracts to Thicklin’s company and other businesses. In exchange for the money, Elliott would allegedly get back half of it back.
3M Construction, which the 43-year-old Thicklen owned, got six contracts for a total of $25,000 for landscaping and electrical and HVAC work.
The money kicked back to Elliott would allegedly come in the form of payments to her company, Tech Group Investments.
Prosecutors say Elliott also awarded at least 17 contracts, with a total value of $75,000, to Total Source Solution, a company owned by another woman who was tied to the scheme.
Lakeysha Ellis pleaded guilty on March 27 to conspiring with Elliott to obtain contracts for Total Source Solution and then sharing the money.
Ellis, 36, also pleaded guilty to conspiring with Elliott to defraud Baumueller-Nuermont Corp. Ellis, an accountant at Baumueller-Nuermont, falsified employee payroll records to disguise $85,000 in payments to Elliott’s and Thicklen’s companies. Ellis admitted to creating at least two phantom employees by switching the names and Social Security numbers of two real employees.
Ellis has not yet been sentenced.
About the Author
