Louisiana Employee of Department of Energy’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve Found Guilty in Connection with a Scheme to Defraud the United States

Louisiana – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans and Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, announced that Johnny C. Guillory, Sr., age 72, of Opelousas, Louisiana, was found guilty as charged on May 18, 2022 following a three-day jury trial before the Honorable Mary Ann Vial Lemmon.

The jury found Guillory guilty as charged in the indictment with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the Procurement Integrity Act as well as making false statements to federal agents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1001, respectively.

“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is one of our nation’s vital programs, and collusion that destroys the integrity of the procurement process for government contracts will not be tolerated,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s guilty verdict demonstrates that people who corrupt that process, defraud the United States, and lie about it will be held accountable. The Antitrust Division will continue to vigorously prosecute offenses that undermine competition and work with our law enforcement partners to protect taxpayer dollars.”

“This guilty verdict sends a clear message that our office, along with our federal partners will vigorously investigate and prosecute all violations of our Nation’s laws, said U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Louisiana, Duane A. Evans.”

According to the indictment, Guillory and Cajan Welding & Rentals, Ltd. conspired to defraud the United States by corrupting and impairing the government procurement process and obtaining non-public pricing and cost information in order to obtain subcontract awards and payments from the United States Department of Energy in connection with the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve operation. Cajan received over 50 subcontracts and over $15,000,000.00 in payments from the US Department of Energy from 2002 to 2016, during which time Guillory received financial benefits from Cajan.

Guillory will be sentenced on September 8, 2022, and faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000.00 fine, a three-year term of supervised release, and a $200.00 mandatory special assessment for each count.

Assistant US Attorney Tracey N. Knight of the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana and Trial Attorneys Megan S. Lewis and Julia Maloney of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal II Section prosecuted the case. The investigation was carried out by the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Energy.