A seven-count indictment unsealed this month charged two Danville, California men with conspiracy to defraud the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) of more than $300,000.
This, according to a press release that staff with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Middle District of Tennessee published on their website.
Authorities charged Anthony Gigliotti, 74, the CEO of Autonomic Software, Inc. with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and three counts of wire fraud. Officials charged Alexander Gigliotti, 36, the vice president of Autonomic, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. U.S. Marshals arrested both men in California, the press release said.
“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,” according to the press release.
“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. This, with a breakdown of an invoice regarding purported costs that the Rutherford County Schools incurred, 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 press release said.
“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, the press release said.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Anthony Gigiotti” by Anthony Gigliotti and “Alexander Gigliotti” is by Alexander Gigliotti.
