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North Carolina defense contractor pleads guilty to $15M fraud

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NORFOLK, Va. – A Fayetteville man pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in several conspiracies to overbill the federal government on government contracts.

According to a plea agreement, 48-year-old defense contractor Philip A. Mearing is the owner of Global Services Corporation.

In 2004, Mearing, along with his co-conspirators Kenneth Bricker and Ken Deines, made an agreement where fraudulent payments were made to Global Services Corporation to Bricker’s two corporations, Tempo and BPM, regarding hundreds of invoices for work and services done by Global that were never done by Tempo and BPM.

As part of their agreement, Mearing, Deines and Bricker retained five percent of fraudulent payments made by Global to Tempo and BPM.

Shortly after, Bricker transferred the remaining 95 percent of the fraudulent payments to Mearing and to DeShas, an Ohio company controlled by Mearing.

From 2004 to 2014, Bricker received about $13.6 million in fraudulent payments from Global, kept approximately $558,000 for his personal use and issued checks totaling approximately $13 million to DeShas or Mearing.

In a separate conspiracy, Mearing, Deines, and William Hutsenpiller, the former Comptroller for Norfolk Ship Support Activity (NSSA), conspired to submit false claims to the government via false invoices that resulted in a loss of approximately $1.8 million.

The combined loss amount to the government from the two separate conspiracies is $15,413,029.76.

Mearing pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison when sentenced on September 29.