ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A former government contracting officer and her husband have pleaded guilty to nepotism-related charges.
Fifty-one-year-old Helen Renee Ballard and 56-year-old Robert S. Ballard of Brandywine, Maryland, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Alexandria to conspiring to make false statements. They each face up to five years in prison.
Renee Ballard was director of the General Services Administration’s Central Office Contracting Division from 2006 through 2011. According to the plea documents, she persuaded Arlington-based contractor CACI to hire her husband to a $140,000 job and inflated his credentials. She later tried to help him get a six-figure job at GSA.
When she was first charged last year, prosecutors alleged she also convinced CACI to hire her brother, sister-in-law and father to jobs with annual pay ranging from $62,000 to $86,000.
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