Former employee of DLI and NPS pleads guilty to stealing government property.

Monterey County’s military installations employ not just members of the military, but also civilians. From 2010 to 2019, one of roughly 1,700 civilian employees at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey was Zelene Charles, who served first as a civilian supply technician, then as a supply specialist, responsible for supervising multiple warehouse employees. (She then transferred to the Naval Postgraduate School in 2019, for a year working there in the same role.)

Her responsibilities included overseeing a supply warehouse for IT equipment at DLI, where every faculty member and student is issued a laptop and tablet – roughly 6,000 devices in total – and handling government property valued at more than $16 million. She had the ability to authorize multiple government purchasing card (GPC) cardholders’ accounts.

Starting in 2016, Charles created fake purchase requests and invoices, some on behalf of real entities, others fabricated. Orders were paid for with her subordinates’ GPC cards, charged by a Square account that Charles created – but the goods were never actually ordered or received by DLI. Instead, the money was authorized by her, then transferred from government accounts to at least 78 personal accounts Charles maintained at Wells Fargo and Navy Federal Credit Union, to the tune of $624,250 through 185 transactions over four years.

These details are all laid out in a federal indictment filed by the United States Department of Justice against Charles on May 17, charging her with theft and wire fraud for cash and at least 12 Apple devices. On Monday, July 1, Charles entered a guilty plea, admitting to the crimes. “She knew that this money and property that she obtained through her scheme belonged to the United States government and that she was not entitled to receive it,” prosecutor Anne Hsieh told federal Judge Edward Davile at the July 1 hearing in San Jose.

An investigation began at NPS, then led a range of federal investigators – from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General and U.S. General Services and more – to unearth the extent of the fraud, which continued with the assistance of an unnamed person at DLI after Charles left for NPS.

DLI Chief of Staff Steve Collins says protocols have been tightened. Instead of conducting inventory once a year, they now do it three times a year, aided by adding barcodes to every tablet and laptop. What used to be a weeks-long process now takes days with a scanner. “It’s done much more quickly,” Collins says.

They’ve also added more checks and balances, but Collins adds, “Processes are only as good as the integrity and professionalism of those in place.”

Charles agreed to pay $624,500 in restitution and will forfeit stolen computers and tablets as part of her plea; the combined charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21. Charles could not be reached for comment and her attorney did not respond.