The Richmond City Hall building. (BizSense file)
Two former senior officials with Richmond’s public works department are among three people who have pleaded guilty in recent months to conspiring to defraud the city of over $600,000 in department contracts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced this month that Michael Evins, a former senior manager with the department, and wife Samaria Evins pleaded guilty to charges that they used Michael’s position to steer department contracts to straw companies created by Samaria and at least two other co-conspirators.
One of those co-conspirators, Shaun Lindsey, a former senior administrative technician with the department, entered a similar plea in May. Lindsey and Michael Evins face up to 20 years in prison as part of their plea deals, while Samaria Evins faces up to five years.
According to court filings, the Evinses’ fraud took place from at least 2016 through 2021, during which time Samaria, Lindsey and co-conspirators including Lindsey’s boyfriend, who is not identified, created straw companies to bid on department contracts.
Michael Evins and Lindsey, the filings allege, then used their positions in the department to direct work to those companies, in violation of city and state rules against self-dealing by public employees.
“In some instances, the work to be performed was completely fabricated and no such work was ever needed,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a release. “In other instances, the work was actually performed by (department) employees, not by contracted vendors.”
In one instance, in early 2019, Michael awarded lawn mowing work that already had been performed at the city’s Parker Field to a company owned by Samaria, ordering the area to be mowed 16 times in four days at a cost of $300 per job or a total of $4,800, just below the department’s $5,000 procurement threshold for work to be competitively bid.
The release states that the Evinses, Lindsey and their co-conspirators fraudulently caused the department to disburse over $603,000 to companies owned by them, resulting in over $226,000 in losses to the department.
Michael, 67, and Samaria, 52, are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 7. Lindsey, 53, is to be sentenced Aug. 29. U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck is presiding over the cases, which are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Avi Panth.
The federal courthouse in Richmond. (BizSense file photo)
Michael’s plea agreement calls for maximum penalties of 20 years in prison; a fine of over $450,000, or twice the gross loss; full restitution; forfeiture of assets; and three years’ supervised release.
Sentences are typically less than the maximum penalties specified in the respective sentencing agreements. Sentencing is informed in part by a case’s presentence investigation report, which is kept confidential, and ultimately decided by the judge.
Local attorney Anthony White is representing Michael, while Newport News-based attorney Stephen Teague is representing Samaria. Lindsey is represented by Richmond attorney William Dinkin.
When Lindsey’s guilty plea was announced in May, the city released a statement on behalf of Richmond City Council praising the efforts of the city’s inspector general’s office in the case.
“I am immensely proud of the work done by our Inspector General, our Council Appointee, in solving this case through a thorough and comprehensive investigation,” Council President Michael Jones said in the release.
“This recent case involving Shaun Lindsey is a testament to the hard work and tireless effort put in by the Inspector General’s office,” Jones said. “We hope that this sends a clear message to anyone who seeks to engage in unlawful, wasteful, or abusive use of Richmond Government funds, that they will be held accountable for their actions.”
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