EAST ST. LOUIS – In a rare case, a federal grand jury in East St. Louis has returned an indictment charging three area men with conspiring to steal and sell sensitive equipment and other property belonging to the United States military.
Brandon Schulte, 43, of Jefferson City, Mo., Jody (“Joe”) Stambaugh, 50, of Nashville, Illinois, and Gary Stambaugh, 77, of Fayetteville, are accused of conspiring with each other and others unnamed to steal military uniforms, tactical robots, night vision sights, high-frequency radios, and other functional military equipment.
“These allegations are very serious,” U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft said. “The indictment charges a conspiracy to steal and sell sensitive military items. Any theft of government property harms the taxpayers, but worse, items such as equipment and uniforms could easily fall into the wrong hands and threaten the safety of our service members.”
“As the investigative arm of the Department of Defense, the DoD Office of Inspector General Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) is charted to protect our warfighters, DoD equipment, funds, and other resources,” said Michael Mentavlos, Special Agent-in-Charge – DCIS, Southwest Field Office. “Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment, along with our law enforcement partners, to aggressively pursue those that attempt to illegally profit from taxpayer-funded resources.”
According to the indictment, Gary Stambaugh and Joe Stambaugh were co-owners of Stambaugh Enterprises, a scrap metal company located in Mascoutah. Stambaugh Enterprises allegedly operated as a subcontractor on a DoD contract to pick up, transport, and recycle scrap metal items from multiple DoD facilities in Illinois and Missouri, including Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County, and a Missouri Army National Guard facility in Jefferson City, Mo.
The indictment alleges that the Stambaughs were obligated to mutilate and destroy all military property they hauled away from each DoD facility and were prohibited from reusing or refurbishing any military items for their own use or selling any military items to be reused or refurbished by someone else.
The Stambaughs allegedly removed truckloads of military property from DoD facilities but did not destroy or mutilate every item, in violation of their contracts. According to the indictment, the Stambaughs transported the military property to their place of business in Mascoutah and sorted through the items to determine what could be converted to their own use or sold to others.
