PORTLAND, Maine: An Old Orchard Beach man pleaded guilty in federal court today to theft of government property, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.
According to court records, from about April 2014 to June 2016, Michael Gamash, 64, took scrap metal belonging to the U.S. Navy from dumpsters located on the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) and sold the metal to two area metal dealers. Gamash was an employee of PNSY at the time. When investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) interviewed him, he admitted routinely taking scrap metal items from several dumpsters at PNSY and selling the metal. He acknowledged that he knew it was illegal to take the metal and sell it for his personal profit. In total, he received approximately $60,000 for the metal he took from PNSY.
Gamash faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He also faces up to three years of supervised release. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.