Co-conspirator in Richmond public works fraud case gets 14-month prison sentence

The Richmond City Hall building. (BizSense file)

A second former official with Richmond’s public works department will serve time behind bars for her role in helping to facilitate a three-year scheme that defrauded the city of over $600,000 in department contracts.

Shaun Lindsey, 53, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in May to conspiring to use her position as a former senior administrative technician to steer department contracts to straw companies created by co-conspirators.

The sentence is roughly half what her former boss, Michael Evins, who had been a senior manager with the department, received a week earlier for his role as the main conspirator in the scheme. Evins, 67, received 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He and Lindsey both faced up to 20 years in prison.

Also sentenced last week was Evins’ wife, Samaria, who was among at least three co-conspirators who created the straw companies. The 52-year-old received eight months’ home confinement and five years of probation.

Addressing U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck before she handed down her sentence, Lindsey apologized to the city and to her friends and family, many of whom were in the courtroom and had written letters in support.

“I want to apologize to the citizens of this city,” Lindsey said, describing her actions as “my horrible lapse of good judgment.”

“I know that I was wrong. The shame is devastating,” she said.

According to court filings, the fraud took place from at least 2016 through 2021, during which time Lindsey, Samaria and co-conspirators including Lindsey’s boyfriend, who is not identified, created the straw companies to bid on department contracts.

Michael and Lindsey, the filings state, then used their positions in the department to direct work to those companies, in violation of city and state rules against self-dealing by public employees. The release states that the Evinses, Lindsey and their co-conspirators fraudulently caused the department to disburse over $603,000 to companies owned by them, resulting in over $226,000 in losses to the department.

The U.S. District Court building downtown. (BizSense file)

Lindsey’s attorney, William Dinkin, had sought a sentence of 12 months of home confinement, arguing that the mother of two had led an otherwise exemplary life and did not need incarceration to deter her from repeating her crime. He argued that Lindsey was not the main beneficiary of the fraud and said her church and current employer continued to entrust her with finances despite knowing about the case.

“It is a mystery why she did what she did. It is not a mystery that she would never do this again,” Dinkin said.

“I think she’s the kind of person who can’t say no when asked to help,” Dinkin said. Describing Michael as the main driver of the fraud, he added: “He was her boss. He was the one who was pushing this down on her.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Avi Panth maintained that the sentencing guidelines in the case, which called for 15 to 21 months in prison, were appropriate given the duration of the scheme and the violation of trust involved with her employment with the city and role as a public servant.

“She used the specialized knowledge of DPW workings to enrich herself,” Panth said, adding that Lindsey continued the scheme even after Michael retired from the department.

“This was not an isolated incident,” he argued. “Every single instance of fraud required multiple steps from Shaun Lindsey…over the course of three years.”

Acknowledging Lindsey’s visibly emotional state in court, Lauck urged her to move on from feeling shame about her actions, noting the number of people in the courtroom to support her and the letters they’d written about her character. Lauck took several minutes reading excerpts from those letters, which she described as among the most she’d received in a case.

“I can see your evident remorse. I have no doubt about that,” Lauck said. “I have to take into account that you are a public servant. We cannot have people losing respect for the government. We have to make sure that people who go to work for the government are citizens first.

“I don’t see a circumstance when a public servant can’t receive some jail time for performing like this,” Lauck said, later adding: “It was because of you – you created a separate company – that this was able to go forward. Even if you’re giving it to others, you’re not giving your own money away.”

In delivering her sentence, Lauck added: “I cannot not give you a jail term.”

Lindsey’s sentence includes paying over $226,000 in restitution to the City of Richmond Department of Public Works, to be paid in installments of at least $50 a month. Lauck noted that paying the restitution is the responsibility of the Evinses as well as Lindsey.

When Lindsey’s guilty plea was announced in May, the city released a statement on behalf of Richmond City Council praising the efforts of the city’s inspector general’s office in the case, which council president Michael Jones described as involving “a thorough and comprehensive investigation.” Panth said Tuesday the case involved two years’ worth of work from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

In the May statement, Jones said: “We hope that this sends a clear message to anyone who seeks to engage in unlawful, wasteful, or abusive use of Richmond Government funds, that they will be held accountable for their actions.”