FRESNO - Scott T. Carlton, 49, of Visalia, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to defraud the government and making a false statement, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. According to court documents, the IRS’s Fresno campus is a national center for processing federal tax returns. Carlton was an employee of E&A Protective Services, which had the government contract to supply 24-hour-a-day armed security guards to the IRS’s Fresno campus.
When it became apparent that many of the guards could not achieve the firearms shooting score required under the contract, Carlton conspired to falsify scores and supply unqualified guards to the IRS facilities. Over a three-year period, E&A was paid over $2 million on fraudulent invoices submitted to the IRS for security guards who were not qualified to work under that contract.