Earl Lamont Smith

Smith was an Army Reserve sergeant stationed at Army Reserve centers in Tennessee. Between 2003 and 2007, he and two fellow Reserve sergeants — Harold Grady and Gregory Murray — discovered they could exploit a federal surplus property program that allowed government agencies to request excess equipment from other federal agencies for official use. The program required that all requested equipment remain government property and be used solely for official federal purposes. Smith's role was the most extensive of the three. He filed phony letters on official Army letterhead and fabricated supporting documentation falsely stating that the computers and equipment he requested would be sent to soldiers in Iraq in support of "Operation Enduring Freedom." Using this cover, he obtained computers and other equipment from multiple federal agencies — including the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Air Force, NASA, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Army — then sold the stolen equipment to computer stores in Georgia and Tennessee. Grady and Murray participated on a smaller scale, obtaining equipment solely from the CDC and reselling it through private sales, newspaper listings, and eBay. All three pleaded guilty to theft of government property (18 U.S.C. § 641) and were sentenced on March 24, 2010, by U.S. District Judge Orinda D. Evans in the Northern District of Georgia. Smith received the heaviest sentence reflecting the scope and sophistication of his role.