Steve Marcus/Reuters
A Virginia Beach naval officer has been sentenced to four years in prison after he swindled $2.7 million from the U.S. government in order to fund a high-stakes poker habit, penchant for luxury cars, and multiple homes. According to The Virginian-Pilot, Lt. Randolph Prince, who pleaded guilty to the charges in August, was also ordered to pay $2,719,907 in restitution for what prosecutors said was a scam to defraud the government. Prince, along with two other Navy officials, reportedly steered government contracts to buy supplies from hoax companies his co-conspirators had set up. The supplies purchased were reportedly never delivered but were marked as shipped. “The greed underpinning Prince’s activities is shocking, and his actions were impressively calculated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Layne said in a statement. Defense attorney Shawn Cline said it was a “shame” Prince had “squandered” his 27-year Naval career. “He suffered from a terrible gambling addiction and abused a position of trust to fuel that addiction,” Cline told the newspaper.