A former employee of the DC government caught with his hands in the tech cookie jar has admitted to hi-jacking government laptops, a move that's cost taxpayers a pretty penny. Darrell A. Smith, Sr., aged 56, from Newark, New Jersey, pled guilty to three counts of first-degree theft along with one count of trafficking in stolen property, according to a press release from the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
In this bureaucratic swindle, Smith, who worked as an Information Technology manager at the District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), exploited his official access to spiri away multiple Apple MacBook Pro laptops—part of a spicy $1.6 million tech procurement—and while the former IT manager made off with some of these high-dollar devices, others found new homes as gifts or turned into cash on the down low, as detailed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
When officials at the DHCF began investigating the disappearance of Apple laptops, Smith initially denied wrongdoing. However, court records show that his guilty plea later revealed he not only stole the devices but also deleted security camera footage in an attempt to conceal the thefts. Authorities estimate the losses to the District at a minimum of $30,000.
Smith is now on the calendar for sentencing come April 17, with The Honorable Andrea Hertzfeld presiding, and while U.S. Attorney Pirro along with others like Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll of the Metropolitan Police Department and Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb gave a nod to the investigative teams that brought the hammer down on the caper, they also underlined the collaborative work between different DC offices and their New Jersey counterparts in bringing the case to a close, according to the same press release.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Bluming prosecuted the case as part of a joint effort to combat fraud and corruption affecting the District and its residents.
