3 Ft. Monmouth Workers Charged in Arranging No-Show Jobs

TRENTON, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- Two former Fort Monmouth workers, and the daughter of one of them, were indicted Thursday and accused of scheming to have government contractors provide no-show jobs for the daughter, federal prosecutors said.

Accused were Michael Rzeplinski, 55, a former programs director for the General Services Administration and former U.S. Army supervisory engineer; Connie Davidson, 61, a former GSA employee who resides with Rzeplinski in Red Bank, and Kirsten Davidson, 33, of Red Bank, daughter of Connie Davidson.

They could not be reached for comment. Messages to their lawyers left after business hours Thursday were not immediately returned and no home listings were found.

All three are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Rzeplinski also faces two counts of mail fraud and three counts of tax evasion.

Rzeplinski and Connie Davidson were accused of using their Fort Monmouth positions to arrange the no-show jobs at two companies that had contracts to provide information technology services to the Army at Fort Monmouth. The companies were not named in the indictment.

Kirsten Davidson got more than $125,000 from one company over three years, despite doing little or no work, after Rzeplinski caused a project to be awarded to that company in February 2002, the indictment charged.

She got about $156,000 from the second company, despite doing little or no work, in less than three years after Rzeplinski and her mother arranged for that company to get over a half-million dollars in government work, the indictment charged.

Rzeplinski is also accused of having the second company hire a company he created, R-ZED Engineering, as a subcontractor on its government work. Although R-ZED did no work, the second company was compelled to make payments totaling $151,500 from June 2002 to October 2005, the indictment charged.

The conspiracy count carries up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the loss or gain from the scheme.

Each mail fraud count carries up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Each tax evasion count carries up to five years in prison and a fine of $100,000.

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