The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced today that the former CEO and President of National Center for the Employment of the Disabled (NCED) ROBERT EDWARD JONES, a.k.a., Bob Jones; former NCED Chief Operations Officer ERNESTO ALONZO LOPEZ, a.k.a. Ernie Lopez; and former NCED Officer and member of the NCED Board of Directors PATRICK WOODS, a.k.a., Pat Woods, were arrested without incident this morning on federal charges related to embezzling millions of dollars in government program funds. The arrests stem from two separate federal grand jury indictments returned in El Paso–a thirty-seven count superseding indictment on October 9, 2008, and a five-count indictment on September 25, 2008.
The charges in the superseding indictment arise from actions on the part of the defendants while they were employed by NCED. The allegations detail schemes to lie to the Committee for Purchase from the Blind and Severely Disabled, falsely claiming NCED was in compliance with the Javits -Wagner-O’Day Act (JWOD), thus entitled to receive no-bid contracts from government agencies, which contracts are set aside for not-for-profit organizations who employ blind or other severely handicapped individuals for not less than 75 percent of the man-hours of direct labor required for the production or provision of the goods or commodities required on the government contract. According to the indictment, NCED never employed sufficient numbers of blind or severely disabled workers to qualify for JWOD contracts. The indictment further alleges that the defendants stole or embezzled at least $5,000 from NCED, an organization that received at least $10,000 in federal government program money in each year charged and, without authorization of the NCED Board of Directors, directed the money for the use of themselves or others. Finally, the indictment alleges that certain defendants lied to federally insured financial institutions to obtain loans and other forms of credit to further their personal use of NCED funds.
In the superseding indictment, Jones is charged in all thirty-seven counts including charges of conspiracy to commit theft or embezzlement of government program funds; theft or embezzlement of government program funds; conspiracy to make false statements to a federally insured financial institution to obtain credit; false statements to a federally insured financial institution to obtain credit; conspiracy to commit bank fraud; conspiracy to make false statements and defraud the United States; false statements and defrauding the United States; conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud; mail fraud; and wire fraud.
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