Employee of US military contractor admits faking strength-test results for steel in Navy submarines, a decades-long fraud

• A worker faked hundreds of steel-strength tests at a foundry that supplies parts to Navy submarines.
• Elaine Marie Thomas pleaded guilty to fraud and faces up to 10 years in jail.

A metallurgist has pleaded guilty to decades of fraud after she admitted faking the results of strength tests of steel used to make US Navy submarines.

Elaine Marie Thomas, the former director of metallurgy at Bradken Inc., pleaded guilty in a recent court hearing, per an announcement from the Department of Justice.

Thomas, 67, was responsible for running test results that measured the strength and toughness of steel components made by Bradken in Tacoma, Washington, officials said. It went on to be used in US Navy submarines.

For 30 years, Bradken produced steel castings used in submarines that failed lab tests, falling below the standards required by the US Navy, the statement said. It did not specify which submarines used the steel.

Over the 30 years, Thomas falsified results for more than 240 batches of steel, a "substantial percentage" of what the firm supplied to the Navy, the statement said.

Thomas faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $1 million at her sentencing in February next year, the US Attorney's Office in the Western District of Washington said.

It was not until a lab employee in 2017 discovered altered test cards and other discrepancies in Thomas's records that the fraud became apparent, the DOJ said.

The Navy has not alleged that the metal parts caused specific submarine failures, but it said extra tests on the submarines will increase the costs and maintenance as the substandard parts are monitored.

Bradken last year paid a civil settlement of more than $10,000,000 for supplying substandard naval parts, the Department of Justice said.