Washington scientist admits to fabricating steel-strength results for US Navy subs for over 30 years: Took 'shortcuts' because she thought safety test criteria was 'stupid'
- Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, pleaded guilty to major fraud in Tacoma federal court Monday, after she spent decades faking tests on steel used to build Navy subs
- The falsified test results reported by Thomas came over the course of 32 years while she was employed as a metallurgist, or mineral expert, at a steel foundry
- During Monday's proceedings, Thomas struck a deal with prosecutors that sees her facing up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine
- Thomas' attorney argued that her client did not intend to put anyone's lives in danger with the fabricated tests, saying she merely 'took shortcuts'
- Thomas said she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought the Navy's criteria for tests was 'stupid' and disagreed with it
- The manufacturing company that owns the foundry in Tacoma, Bradken Inc., is the US Navy's leading supplier of steel for naval submarines
A Washington state scientist who specializes in steel and other metals who was once employed by a foundry that provides steel for U.S. Navy submarines admitted in federal court Monday that she spent decades faking strength test results, calling the criteria for the safety tests 'stupid.'
Washington metallurgist Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, falsified results over the course of 32 years while the woman was employed at a steel foundry in Tacoma, according to prosecutors.
The company that owns the foundry, Bradken Inc., is the U.S. Navy's leading supplier of steel for naval submarines.
'She regrets that she failed to follow her moral compass - admitting to false statements is hardly how she envisioned living out her retirement years,' Thomas' lawyer, John Carpenter, said, acknowledging that she 'took shortcuts.'
A metallurgist in Washington state pleaded guilty to fraud Monday in federal court after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make US Navy submarines, such as the one pictured, the nuclear-powered attack sub USS Vermont
During Monday's proceedings, Thomas pleaded guilty to major fraud after striking a deal with prosecutors, which sees her facing up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. She will be sentenced in February.
Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for at least 240 productions of steel - about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy, from 1985 through 2017, according to the agreement.
The tests that Thomas oversaw at the foundry, owned by Bradken Inc., were intended to measure the strength and toughness of the metal used in the all-important underwater crafts - and to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain 'wartime scenarios,' the Department of Justice (DOJ) - the body that oversees the Navy - noted.
Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma owned by Bradken Inc., which supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls
Prosecutors argued that Thomas, who had been employed by Bradken since 1977 until she was dismissed after the fabrications came to light in 2017, instead put sailors and submariners at risk by fudging numbers to get the results she wanted.
According to the indictment against her, between 1985 and 2017, Thomas 'knowingly devised and executed a scheme with the intent to defraud the United States Navy, and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses and representations.'
The indictment further stated that Thomas would sometimes alter the first digit of the test results meant to determine the toughness of steel building materials and the 'amount of dynamic force' it can withstand.
For more than 30 years, Thomas altered test results determining the safety for more than 240 steel productions while working for a foundry that provides metal for US Navy subs. Pictured: the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut
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The falsified results 'caused the United States Navy to make contract payments that the Navy would not have made if it had known the true characteristics of the steel,' the indictment added.
Prosecutors further noted Monday that the productions whose tests were falsified made up 'a substantial percentage of the castings Bradken produced for the Navy.'
During the proceedings, Thomas suggested that she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was 'stupid' that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit - or negative-73.3 degrees Celsius, arguing that the testing conditions were too extreme and not practical when garnering useful results.
The Bradken Inc. foundry is the US Navy's leading supplier of steel for naval submarines
On Monday, Carpenter argued that his client had no malintent with her testing and was merely trying to save time, admitting in a statement that she 'took shortcuts.'
'Ms. Thomas never intended to compromise the integrity of any material and is gratified that the government´s testing does not suggest that the structural integrity of any submarine was in fact compromised,' Carpenter wrote in the statement filed Monday in the Tacoma U.S. District courthouse.
'This offense is unique in that it was neither motivated by greed nor any desire for personal enrichment.
During the proceedings Monday at Tacoma Courthouse (pictured) in Washington, Thomas suggested that she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was 'stupid' that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit
Thomas' conduct came to light in 2017, when a fellow metallurgist who was being groomed to replace the senior scientist noticed suspicious test results and alerted the company, Bradken Inc., which acquired the foundry in 2008.
Bradken fired Thomas and initially disclosed its findings to the Navy, but then wrongfully suggested that the discrepancies were not the result of fraud.
That hindered the Navy´s investigation into the scope of the problem as well as its efforts to remediate the risks to its sailors, prosecutors said.
In June 2020, the company agreed to pay $10.9 million in a deferred-prosecution agreement.
When confronted with the doctored results, Thomas told investigators, 'Yeah, that looks bad,' the Justice Department said.
There were no allegations that any of the hulls who materials were signed off on by Thomas failed - but authorities said the Navy had incurred increased costs and maintenance to ensure they remain seaworthy.
The government did not disclose which subs were affected.
The Justice Department said it would recommend a prison term for Thomas at the low end of her suggested sentence - which could see the 67-year-old scientist behind bars until 2032.
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