Indicted: 2 Obama officials face federal charges

Official portrait of Barack Obama unveiled in February 2018

Two former Obama administration officials have been indicted on fraud charges for allegedly stealing government software and database information and trying to sell it back.

Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said a former acting inspector general for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a former subordinate" stole "proprietary software and confidential databases from the U.S. government."

The charges come from a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia, which returned a 16-count indictment recently.

The charges are against former DHS acting Inspector General Charles K. Edwards, 59, of Sandy Spring, Maryland, and Murali Yamazula Venkata, 54, of Aldie, Virginia. They allegedly conspired to commit theft of government property and to defraud the United States. They also are accused of theft, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The DOJ said: "According to the allegations in the indictment, from October 2014 to April 2017, Edwards, Venkata, and others executed a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from DHS Office of Inspector General, along with sensitive government databases containing personal identifying information of DHS and USPS employees, so that Edwards's company, Delta Business Solutions, could later sell an enhanced version of DHS-OIG's software to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at a profit."

Edwards left the OIG's office in 2013, but "continued to leverage his relationship with Venkata and other DHS-OIG employees to steal the software and the sensitive government databases."

"In addition to stealing DHS-OIG's software and the sensitive government databases," the DOJ said, "Venkata and others also assisted Edwards by reconfiguring his laptop so that he could properly upload the stolen software and databases, provided troubleshooting support whenever Edwards required it, and helped him build a testing server at his residence with the stolen software and databases, which contained PII," the charges allege.

The case is a result of continuing investigations by various inspectors general.