10/25/2024

Defense Contractor Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison for Fraud, Money Laundering, and Unlawful Export of Technical Data

Office of Public Affairs U.S. Department of Justice

Yuksel Senbol, 36, of Orlando, Florida, was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, violating the Export Control Reform Act, and violating the Arms Export Control Act. As part of her sentence, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $275,430.90, the proceeds of Senbol’s fraud and money laundering scheme. Senbol entered pleaded guilty on May 7.

According to facts taken from public filings, beginning in approximately April 2019, Senbol operated a front company in the Middle District of Florida called Mason Engineering Parts LLC. She used this front company to assist her co-conspirators, Mehmet Ozcan and Onur Simsek, to fraudulently procure contracts to supply critical military components to the Department of Defense. These components were intended for use in the Navy Nimitz and Ford Class Aircraft Carriers, Navy Submarines, Marine Corps Armored Vehicles, and Army M-60 Series Tank and Abrahams Battle Tanks, among other weapons systems.

To fraudulently procure the government contracts, Senbol and her co-conspirators falsely represented to the U.S. government and U.S. military contractors that Mason Engineering Parts LLC was a vetted and qualified manufacturer of military components, when in fact, the parts were being manufactured by Ozcan and Simsek in Turkey. As Senbol knew, Simsek’s involvement had to be concealed from the U.S. government because he had been debarred from contracting with the U.S. government after being convicted of a virtually identical scheme in the Southern District of Florida.