A Georgetown-based interior decorator is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to committing fraud to obtain a $1.3 million federal contract to decorate the new Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Southwest Washington. Darlene Mathis-Gardner is accused of faking invoices to show that her firm had performed similar renovation projects, and claiming that employees had security clearances and professional certifications when they did not. Mathis-Gardner, president and founder of Systems Design Inc., faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Mathis-Gardner’s company has secured $9.6 million in government contracts since 2001, with two-thirds of that amount being awarded no-bid, according to Opensecrets.org. That doesn’t include a $5.4 million contract that was awarded last year to design custom crystal stemware for the State Department even though her company didn’t have any glassmaking experience.
The glassware contract was rescinded after a political uproar; the recent criminal charges are unrelated.
According to charging documents, in 2006, Mathis-Gardner learned of a government contract to renovate ICE offices at the Potomac Center North, 500 12th St. SW, and hired a person with retail store management experience as a consultant to apply for the contract and manage the project if awarded.
Mathis-Gardner and her consultant, identified only as Person A in court documents, wrote an application that falsely overstated the background and qualification of the company and said the some of the employees had worked for the company for several years when they had never worked there, charging documents said.
In May 2007, Mathis-Gardner prepared and faxed instructions to Person A explaining how to create fictitious invoices that were supposed to show the company’s past performances, documents said. Mathis-Gardner provided customer names, job descriptions, employee names, labor rates and dollar values to use in creating the bogus invoices with the company’s logo.
One fake invoice falsely claimed that the company had done about $1.25 million in work for Fannie Mae. Another bogus invoice said the company was the prime contractor for a $1.1 million District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation project.
Based on the fraudulent information, the federal government awarded Mathis-Gardner’s company the $1.3 million ICE contract, prosecutors said.
