NASHVILLE – A
seven-count indictment unsealed Friday charged two Danville,
California men with conspiracy to defraud the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) of more than $300,000, announced Acting U.S.
Attorney Mary Jane Stewart for the Middle District of
Tennessee.
Anthony Gigliotti, 74, the CEO of Autonomic Software, Inc.,
(Autonomic) was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three
counts of mail fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
Alexander Gigliotti, 36, the Vice President of Autonomic, was
charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Both were
arrested by U.S. Marshals in Danville, California on Friday and will
appear in the Middle District of Tennessee at a later date for
further proceedings.
According to the indictment, Autonomic was a software company
located in Danville, California, which provided a variety of
software to private and public sector organizations. In 2016,
Autonomic installed power management software in Rutherford County
school systems, in connection with TVA’s EnergyRight program, an
incentive-based program designed to save energy and reduce costs
through the installation of energy-saving software. To be
eligible for the energy conservation funds, customers were required
to pay a portion of the software materials costs.
Instead of following the program requirements, Autonomic represented
to the Rutherford County School District that schools would not
incur any costs associated with the software installation.
Following the installation of the software, Autonomic submitted 47
invoices, totaling $588,240 to Lockheed Martin, the contract
administrator of the EnergyRight program. The invoices were
made out to Rutherford County Schools and represented that each
school incurred costs associated with Autonomic’s software
installation.
Alexander Gigliotti also sent an email to a Lockheed Martin
representative in support of seeking the incentive payments from
TVA, with a breakdown of an invoice regarding purported costs
incurred by Rutherford County Schools, claiming that the school paid
$22 per computer related to software and $8 per computer related to
support. In fact, Rutherford County Schools did not incur any
costs associated with any invoice from Autonomic. Lockheed
Martin then mailed incentive payments to Autonomic that corresponded
to each invoice.
The Autonomic software failed to function as initially represented
and approximately one year after the installation, Rutherford County
Schools purchased energy saving software that could effectively
quantify energy savings and which cost substantially less than
Autonomic’s total purported materials costs.
The indictment also alleges that Anthony Gigliotti lied to TVA
agents by falsely stating that Alexander Gigliotti was not involved
in any of the previous TVA or school system work.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison.
This case was investigated by the TVA Office of Inspector General
and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Beth Myers.
An indictment is merely an accusation. The defendants are
presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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