United States Attorney's Office
Eastern District of California
July 1, 2015
Modesto Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing More Than $316,000 of Government Property from the Tracy DLA Depot
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Eric M. Shaffer, 42, of Modesto, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of theft of government property for taking Department of Defense property worth more than $316,000, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
Shaffer was an employee at the Department of Defense (DoD) Logistics Agency, San Joaquin Distribution Center, in Tracy, (Tracy DLA Depot). Shaffer regularly came into contact with new goods delivered by venders to the DoD and the United States General Services Administration that were stored at the Tracy DLA Depot before being shipped to military bases in the Pacific Ocean region and elsewhere.
According to court documents, between February 27, 2011, and January 3, 2015, Shaffer sold more than 620 items of stolen government property through approximately 325 auctions on a popular online auction website. He also completed more than 40 private sales of stolen government property to customers who paid Shaffer via an online payment system. Shaffer’s scheme generated approximately $238,000 in illicit revenue. The approximate replacement value of the property exceeds $316,000. Among other items, Shaffer admitted to stealing a GE Video Borescope kit, valued at $10,674; three Cisco TelePresence 8-inch LCD Touch Panels, total value of $4,700; and four Cisco Ethernet switches and a Panasonic Memory Card Drive with a replacement value of $5,000.
This case is the product of an investigation by the General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General; the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and the Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service. Assistant United States Attorney André M. Espinosa is prosecuting the case.
Shaffer is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez on October 6, 2015, for sentencing. The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of theft of government property is 10 years in prison. The actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
