SAN FRANCISCO – Former federal agent James Contreras was sentenced today to a year in prison, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for making false statements to the government, federal officals said.
Contreras stole money used to pay informants and for investigation expenses and lied about it, federal officials said.
The 52-year-old Contreras who was a former group supervisor with the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, pleaded guilty on Feb. 26.
In pleading guilty to one of the thirty false statement counts in the indictment, Contreras admitted that he wrote what purported to be the signature of an agent under his supervision on forms requesting and documenting use of money from the cash fund.
Contreras also admitted that he signed a payment receipt falsely showing that the agent used the money to make a payment to an informant, knowing that the agent did not make the payment.
Contreras, 52, of Ravensdale, Wash., was indicted by a federal grand jury in Seattle on Nov. 21, 2013.
He was charged with thirty counts of making material false statements on sets of documents purporting to document expenditures from the cash fund over which he had custody and control, and with one count of embezzlement of public money in excess of $1,000.
As part of the plea agreement, Contreras said the total amount of money he stole was $19,700.
Seattle Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Douglas R. Dawson, stated, “Jim Contreras’s actions should not reflect poorly on the men and women of the ATF who perform their jobs with honesty and integrity every day. Their tireless efforts to protect our communities, regularly in the face of great danger, is what we all should recognize and appreciate.”