Two Former Coast Guard Employees Sentenced in Federal Court in Louisiana for Multi-Year Test-Fixing Scheme

Louisiana – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that former United States Coast Guard employees Dorothy Smith and Eldridge Johnson were sentenced on October 27, 2022, for engaging in a bribery scheme at a U.S. Coast Guard exam center.

United States District Court Judge Barry W. Ashe sentenced Smith, age 67, to five years imprisonment for the crime of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee. Judge Ashe sentenced Johnson, age 70, to concurrent sentences of six years imprisonment for Bribery and five years for Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and a $200 mandatory special assessment fee. After completing their prison terms, the defendants will be placed on supervised release for three years.

The defendants worked at the Coast Guard exam center known as Regional Exam Center (REC) New Orleans in Mandeville, Louisiana, where they administered examinations that merchant mariners were legally needed to pass in order to obtain permits to operate in various jobs on vessels. The exams assessed mariners’ knowledge and training in order for them to operate safely under the authority of their licenses. Johnson was an examination administrator, whereas Smith was a credentialing specialist.

Smith received bribes to falsify exam scores in a scam that began before April 2012, she said after her guilty plea to Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. Mariners that participate in Smith’s system frequently do not take the exams. Smith would falsify Coast Guard documents and data entries to give the impression that the mariners had appeared and been tested. Smith would write up passing scores and enter them into a computer system used by the Coast Guard. Smith would then write emails to a Coast Guard office claiming that the mariners had completed the exams and should be granted the required licenses. While Smith would occasionally communicate directly with certification candidates (for example, by seeking bribes from them at the exam center), she mostly depended on middlemen. Smith often avoided having any interaction with the seafarers to whom she sold passing scores by utilizing intermediaries.

Beverly McCrary, a former Coast Guard employee who pleaded guilty and is expected to be sentenced by Judge Ashe on December 8, 2022, was one of Smith’s middlemen. McCrary had her own network of middlemen, including mariners Alexis Bell, Micheal Wooten, and Sharron Robinson, all of whom pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and admitting to obtaining fake scores for a total of 31 mariners, including themselves. Bell was sentenced to 42 months in prison earlier this year, while Wooten and Robinson received 54-month sentences. Alonzo Williams, another intermediary in the scam, was sentenced to 40 months in prison in December 2021 for Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.

Johnson entered a guilty plea to two counts of bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Johnson’s bribery conviction stems from his actions as an examination administrator at REC New Orleans. Johnson engaged in a conspiracy to take bribes from mariners who filed for licenses beginning in 2011 and continuing until about the time of his retirement in January 2018. Johnson offered and marketed a variety of illegal services, including falsely reporting information to the Coast Guard and, more typically, selling exam questions and answers to mariners before they took the examinations. Johnson recruited mariners by approaching them at REC New Orleans and calling their telephone contact numbers given in US Coast Guard records.

Johnson’s conspiracy conviction stems from his role as an intermediary for Smith following his retirement from the Coast Guard. Johnson recruited mariners for Smith’s plan in a variety of ways, including approaching mariners who had bribed him as a Coast Guard employee and encouraging those mariners to refer others to Johnson.

In addition to the three former Coast Guard employees and four intermediates already mentioned, 32 mariners were accused and pleaded guilty to the felony offense of unauthorized receipt of a mariner license. Some of these defendants were charged in Judge Ashe’s case, while others were charged in a separate case assigned to US District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon, who sentenced the last of these offenders, Derrick Ward, to probation and community service in August 2022.

The Master Unlimited Oceans endorsement, which allows the holder to captain boats of any tonnage in any waters, was among the many fraudulently obtained permits, as were licenses for other high-level posts such as Chief Mate and Chief Engineer.

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the Coast Guard Investigative Service Gulf Region’s work. The prosecution is led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chandra Menon.

“These former Coast Guard exam center employees risked public safety for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Evans. “Today’s sentencings hold them accountable for their egregious breaches of trust.”

“Credentialed mariners are entrusted with the safety and security of commercial vessels, and the vast majority are dedicated, safety-conscious individuals who work hard to earn their professional credentials and endorsements.  By enabling a group of mariners to circumvent the Coast Guard’s credentialing protocols through fraud, these individuals undermined our credentialing system and threatened our waterways,” said Rear Admiral Wayne R. Arguin, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy. “These sentences demonstrate the tireless efforts of the Coast Guard and Department of Justice, and ensures the United States’ Marine Transportation System remains one of the safest in the world. We are confident this ruling sends a strong message that the U.S. government will not tolerate these types of acts and will vigorously take action against such misconduct.”

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the Coast Guard Investigative Service Gulf Region’s work. The prosecution is led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chandra Menon.