A former federal contractor is facing five years in prison after a D.C. jury convicted him Wednesday lying about doing background checks on Pentagon and federal workers seeking top-secret clearance.

George Abraham was convicted on six counts of lying to investigators. He was supposed to have interviewed associates of seven key government employees who were seeking top-secret clearance in sensitive positions in the Pentagon and Treasury Department. Instead, he didn’t conduct the interviews, or he cut them short and then lied to authorities about it, prosecutors charged. All of the employees were given clearance.