A former employee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was sentenced to just over a year in prison Wednesday for her role in a federal contracting scheme.
In January, 57-year-old LaFonda Lewis had pleaded guilty to giving nonpublic information about pending contracts to Maryland business owner Charles Thomas in exchange for money, sports tickets, designer bags and other bribes.
“The information that Lewis provided … gave Thomas’ company an unfair advantage in competing for contracts,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The total value of bribes received from 2012 to 2015 was $23,055, prosecutors said.
Lewis was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day, along with an additional two years of supervised release. District Judge Randolph D. Moss also ordered the Lusby, Maryland, woman to forfeit the value of the bribes.
Another HUD employee, Kevin Jones, awaits sentencing in June after pleading guilty last month in a similar scheme involving Thomas. The 48-year-old from Laurel, Maryland, has already agreed to forfeit $50,302, the value of the sports tickets, travel and cash he received.
Also awaiting sentencing is Thomas. The 45-year-old executive — whose business provided technology and educational services — pleaded guilty back in May 2018 to the bribes, which also involved an employee of the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
That woman, 49-year-old Shauntell Harley of D.C., was sentenced back in July to 56 months in prison “for clearing the way for payments to be made to Thomas and another businessman.”
