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Press Release
WASHINGTON – Darryl Gale, 52, a former civilian employee of the Army Ten-Miler pled guilty to stealing vendor funds from the Army Ten-Miler’s race and exposition.
The announcement was made by Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin, and James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division.
Gale pled guilty yesterday via teleconferencing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan to a one-count Information charging him with a wire fraud scheme. Gale is scheduled to be sentenced by the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan on November 4, 2020. He faces a possible sentence of 15-21 months and will be required to pay restitution in the amount of $124,758.21, and a forfeiture money judgment.
According to the Statement of Offense, the Army Ten-Miler is an annual race and exposition that has been conducted in the District of Columbia by the U.S. Army Military District of Washington for the prior 35 years. Each year, the race and pre-race exposition attracts over 35,000 runners and 900 teams from around the world. Participants include military, civilians, wheel chair athletes and wounded warrior athletes. The Army Ten-Miler’s mission is to support Army outreach, build morale, and promote physical fitness. The Army Ten-Miler is a category-B Army Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (“MWR”) event, which is open to the public. All race proceeds benefit MWR programs. The Army Ten-Miler is organized and administered each year by a staff of employees based out of an office located in Washington, D.C.
Between 2012 and November 2018, Gale was employed as a civilian employee at the Army-Ten Miler office. Gale’s main responsibilities included selling exposition booth rentals and managing logistics on the day of the exposition and race. Gale devised a scheme to defraud the Army Ten-Miler by making false representations to exposition vendors in order to obtain vendor fees. Gale cashed and deposited into his own personal bank accounts checks, money orders, and payments through third-party payment processors from vendors who had purchased booths for an Army Ten-Miler exposition. The funds were all intended for and were due to the Army Ten-Miler as payments of fees for these booths, but Gale cashed these payments or deposited the funds into his own personal bank accounts for his own use. Through this scheme, Gale stole at least $124,758.21 in vendor fees between January 2017 and November 2018.
In announcing the plea, Acting U.S. Attorney Sherwin and Special Agent in Charge Dawson commended the work of those who investigated the case from the FBI’s Washington Field Office. They acknowledged the efforts of those who are handling the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including Paralegal Specialists C. Rosalind Pressley and Amanda Rohde.
Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane Lucas and Kathryn Rakoczy of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, who prosecuted the case.