Clovis couple convicted of fraud

A Clovis couple was convicted of bilking the Air Force of $6.5 million Thursday by a federal jury in San Antonio, Texas.

Donald Dean Brewer and his wife Sherri Lynn Brewer, both age 62, face 20 years in federal prison and are being forced to repay more than $6 million, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman.

Also convicted in the month-long trial was James McKinney, 60, of San Antonio.

The Brewers are the former owners of Brewer Jeep and Brewer Mitsubishi in Clovis.

Prosecutors charged that McKinney and the Brewers created a sham subcontracting business in 2003 — Enterprise & Deployment LLC — that provided no useful service.

At the time, Donald Brewer was employed by KARTA Technologies Inc., as a programmer at Brooks City Base in San Antonio. McKinney was a vice president at Ark Systems.

Ark was hired to provide computer technology for Air Force medical systems around the world. Prosecutors charged that after McKinney and the Brewers created the sham E&D firm, they inserted it as a subcontractor and forced charges on prime contractors.

The result was to overcharge the Air Force on $33.5 million worth of contracts, according to prosecutors.

Lawyers for the Brewers and McKinney didn't immediately respond for comment. When the couple was indicted in November 2011, their attorney Craig King of Washington, D.C., said E&D "took what had been an incredibly chaotic and expensive cabling project and managed this project in such a way that, for the first time in the history of the project, it came in on budget and on time."

There was no response at the Brewer home in Clovis.

Jurors deliberated three days before returning a guilty verdict on all 17 charges against the trio, including conspiracy to defraud, wire fraud, and major fraud.

All three remain free on bond pending a June 28 sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Fred Biery.