Local News in Brief : Fraud Defendant Called a ‘Scapegoat’
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A former top manager at Rockwell International’s satellite division who stands accused of defense fraud has been made a “scapegoat” in the aerospace giant’s own wrongdoing, a defense attorney argued Tuesday.
On the opening day of Donald H. Carter’s trial, his lawyer, Robert Perry, told Los Angeles court jurors that Carter did nothing wrong and was simply caught up in a complex series of manipulations engineered by his bosses.
“After 26 years of service to Rockwell, Don Carter saw Rockwell turn its back on him, try to make him a scapegoat for a problem Rockwell had,” Perry said. “They demoted him, they suspended him and ultimately they forced him into an early retirement, all for trying to do his job.”
Carter, 59, of Downey, former director of the material division of Rockwell’s satellite systems division in Seal Beach, is accused of helping fuel a scheme to overbill the Air Force by $446,000 on a $1.2-billion satellite navigational system.
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