GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - A former employee of the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland has been sentenced to four months of home detention for illegally accepting payments from companies for work that was part of his federal job.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day also on Friday ordered Gerald Luchansky, 82, of Annapolis, Maryland, to pay a $5,000 fine. Luchansky pleaded guilty to receipt of unauthorized compensation by a government employee, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Hur’s office.
Luchansky was an archives specialist for NARA from 1979 until his retirement in 2017.
A German company paid Luchansky to pull and digitize archival aerial photographs of Allied bombing runs in World War II without the knowledge or approval of NARA, which paid him to provide those same photographs to the public for free, Hur’s office said in a news release.
A Maryland company paid Luchansky to research NARA cartographic holdings and obtain rolls of the agency’s aerial film, which also was part of his government job, according to Hur’s office.
Defense attorney Dennis Murphy said Luchansky has accepted responsibility for his conduct and believes federal authorities and the court treated him fairly.
“Mr. Luchansky expressed considerable regret for the blemish that this matter has placed on his otherwise meritorious career of service to NARA, which was well documented,” Murphy wrote in an email Sunday.
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