Ex-US Navy Officer Pleads Guilty to Theft Charges

He stole the equipment before selling the items for $90,000 to an undercover federal agent.

A former U.S. Navy officer pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing military equipment, including laser-aiming devices, and selling it to an undercover agent, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

David Carmel, 33, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to steal U.S. property after he was accused of stealing hundreds of items, including the laser-aiming devices known as PEQs, machine-gun barrels and night-vision goggles while serving aboard USS Shrike.

The vessel was a minesweeper stationed at a naval station in Ingleside, Texas.

Prosecutors said Carmel served as a supply officer on the ship. He stole the equipment before selling the items for $90,000 to an undercover federal agent he met through auction Web site eBay between May 2006 and early 2007, prosecutors said.

He faces a maximum of five years in prison, but under the terms of his plea deal is likely to receive between 21 and 27 months and faces a fine between $4,000 and $40,000. He will be sentenced on Jan. 16.

Carmel left the U.S. Navy in 2005 and was sentenced last year in a separate case to more than three years in prison for possessing 60 unregistered machine guns at his home in Wisconsin after he argued he was a weapons collector.