The Washington Post - 07.03.2020

A20 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, MARCH 7 , 2020

to conspiring with a former acting

inspector general matching Ed-

wards’s description to steal a data -

base managing more than 150,

internal investigations and con-

taining personal data of nearly

250,000 DHS e mployees, c ourt fil-

ings show.

The manager gave copies of the

database to the former executive

to develop a commercial version

for resale. The database was val-

ued at more than $3.1 million and

included “critical, confidential in-

formation,” a federal judge said at

a plea hearing.

Sonal Patel, 44, of Sterling, Va.,

was released on personal recogni-

zance and has been cooperating

with the government p ending sen-

tencing. She faces up to five years

in prison after pleading guilty to

one c ount of conspiracy to commit

theft o f government property.

According to plea filings, Patel

worked as a branch chief in the

information technology division

of the inspector general’s office.

From October 2 014 until 2017,

P atel used her position to access

and copy source code and data-

base information of DHS and

Postal Service employees to pass

to co-conspirators, the govern-

ment s aid.

[email protected]

BY SPENCER S. HSU

A former acting inspector gen-
eral for the Department of Home-
land Security and a subordinate
have been charged with stealing
government software and data-
bases containing personal data on
more than 250,000 government
employees, the Justice Depart-
ment s aid.
Charles K. Edwards, 59, of San-
dy Spring, Md., and Murali Yama-
zula Venkata, 54, of Aldie, Va.,

were indicted in Washington on

16 counts, including conspiracy to

commit theft o f government p rop-

erty and to defraud the United

States, theft of government prop-

erty, wire fraud and aggravated

identity theft, the Justice Depart-

ment said. Venkata was also

charged with destroying records.

Prosecutors alleged that from

October 2014 to April 2017, Ed-

wards, Venkata and others con-

spired to steal proprietary infor-

mation from the DHS inspector

general’s office so Edwards’s com-

pany, Delta Business Solutions,

could sell an enhanced version to

the A griculture Department.

Edwards left the DHS in De-

cember 2013 but continued “to

leverage his relationship with

Venkata” and other employees,

the g overnment alleged.

Attorneys for Edwards and

Venkata could not i mmediately b e

reached for comment.

The data theft affected the per-

sonal information of DHS and

Postal Service e mployees, the gov-

ernment said. The indictment is

part of an ongoing investigation

by DHS and Postal Service i nspec-

tors general and was announced

by the two agencies, the Justice

Department and the U.S. attor-

ney’s office for the District of Co-

lumbia, which is prosecuting the

case.

The case appears to match de-

tails revealed in the April guilty

plea of a DHS federal technology

manager. The manager admitted

Ex-DHS inspector general c harged with data theft

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