Former Census Bureau Program Manager Sentenced to Two Years in $790,000 Kickback Scheme
A former supervisory official at the U.S. Census Bureau was sentenced to two years in federal prison for a kickback scheme that funneled $790,000 to her through a company owned by a relative. Camille Jones, 47, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to two years in prison followed by one year of supervised release, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest-services fraud in connection with a procurement fraud scheme. The judge also ordered her to forfeit the proceeds.
The case is a rare look inside the contracting machinery of the nation's largest statistical agency, an apparatus that is about to grow much larger as the Bureau ramps up spending for the 2030 census.
How the scheme worked
According to court documents and her guilty plea, Camille Jones used her position to steer a multimillion-dollar employee assistance program contract to a prime contractor and a subcontractor, YMJ Consulting, a company owned by her relative Yolanda M. Jones. In exchange for directing the contract and its later modifications, Camille Jones collected kickbacks from YMJ Consulting and from Yolanda Jones.
The $790,000 flowed back to the official who had awarded the work, the core of an honest-services fraud case: a public employee selling the impartial judgment the government was paying her to exercise.
The attempted cover-up
When investigators began looking, Camille Jones tried to disguise the payments. She drafted a service agreement between YMJ Consulting and a mental health company she herself owned, an arrangement designed to make the kickbacks look like legitimate consulting fees passing between two businesses. Both women signed the agreement in 2024 but backdated it to 2020, according to the plea. The scheme unraveled in part because Yolanda Jones later handed that document to law enforcement during the investigation.
Camille Jones admitted to a second abuse of her position as well. She shared the Census Bureau's confidential procurement information with a different government contractor. While that contractor received preferential treatment, it hired another of her relatives for a job that required minimal work. Camille Jones performed most of the work herself, but the relative was paid $83,000.
A co-defendant awaits sentencing
Yolanda Jones pleaded guilty on Aug. 14, 2025, to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest-services fraud, and is awaiting sentencing. As with any federal case, a district court judge will set her sentence after weighing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The prosecution was announced by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, alongside Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Department of Justice Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Eric Arcand of the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General, which investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan S. McKoy and Acting Chief Edward P. Sullivan of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section are prosecuting.
Why it matters for 2030
The timing is what gives the case weight beyond a single corrupt contract. The Census Bureau is a heavily outsourced operation, and the technology and services that run a modern count are bought through exactly the kind of contracting process this scheme corrupted. The Bureau is now standing up the contract vehicles for the next decennial census, including a small-business award vehicle that could be worth up to $1 billion, as we covered in our look at the 2030 census contracting plans. Every dollar that leaks to a kickback is a dollar not spent counting people, and the integrity of that spending is part of what determines whether the 2030 count runs cleanly.
A census is only as trustworthy as the institution that conducts it. For the basics of what the Bureau does and why an accurate count matters, see our explainers on the purpose of a census and the stakes of the undercount of young children, or explore the current national numbers at a glance.
Sources
Details are from the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, including the sentencing announcement and the earlier guilty-plea press release, and from reporting by The FINANCIAL. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General.
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What was Camille Jones convicted of?
Camille Jones, a former supervisory program manager at the U.S. Census Bureau, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest-services fraud in a procurement fraud scheme. She was sentenced to two years in federal prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit the proceeds.
How much money was involved in the Census Bureau kickback scheme?
Camille Jones received $790,000 in kickbacks for steering a multimillion-dollar employee assistance program contract to YMJ Consulting, a company owned by her relative Yolanda Jones. In a separate arrangement, another contractor paid a second relative $83,000 for a minimal-work job while receiving confidential procurement information.
Who investigated and prosecuted the case?
The U.S. Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General investigated. The case was announced by U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Kelly O. Hayes and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section.
