A Montgomery County man and former senior federal employee was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, including three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, after pleading guilty to theft of government property in connection with a timecard scheme.
Evester Edd, 64, of Silver Spring, was also sentenced to pay $20,758.50 in restitution and conduct 250 hours of community service by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
According to court filings, Edd was a senior human resources staffer for the Peace Corps, working from the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., or a permitted telework location. According to federal authorities, Edd falsely reported hours in the Peace Corps’ time-and-attendance system from September to November 2024 when he was not actually working for the agency.
Investigators discovered that Edd was working remotely as a contractor for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission for many of those hours. An examination of his NRC-issued laptop revealed that he connected into the NRC network from his home almost every day during the hours he acknowledged working for the Peace Corps.
Investigators also discovered nine days in which Edd remotely accessed the NRC network and performed contractor work while physically present at his desk within Peace Corps headquarters throughout the Peace Corps workday. According to prosecutors, Edd’s fake time entries resulted in the Peace Corps compensating him for hours he did not work.
The investigation also discovered that Edd transferred several official documents from agency accounts to his personal AOL email account. Authorities stated that several of the documents included employment actions and contained personally identifiable information as well as other confidential material.
During a search of Edd’s Silver Spring home, detectives discovered a thumb drive holding government papers, including records containing personally identifying information for federal employees. According to the US Attorney’s Office, some of the documents date back to Edd’s previous federal employment, which began at least in the 1990s.
Edd retired from federal service in December 2024, while the criminal enquiry was ongoing.
The Peace Corps Office of Inspector General led the investigation in collaboration with the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Inspector General, and other law enforcement agencies. Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Baldwin prosecuted the case.
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