Man gets 20 months for defrauding military

A Newport Coast man was sentenced to 20 months in prison for conspiring to sell counterfeit microchips to the U.S. military and defense contractors, authorities said.

Neil Felahy, 34, pleaded guilty in 2009 to federal charges of conspiracy to sell counterfeited microchips and was sentenced Feb. 22 to 20 months in prison, 500 hours of community service and three years of supervised release, according to federal court documents.

Felahy’s brother-in-law, Mustafa Abdul Aljaff, 32, also of Newport Coast, was sentenced Feb. 15 to 30 months in prison, 250 hours of community service and three years supervised release, according to the Department of Justice.

The two men are also sentenced to jointly pay $184,612.57 in restitution.

Aljaff owned MVP Micro and other businesses out of the same Irvine location, and was described by the Department of Justice as “the mastermind of the highly sophisticated fraud scheme.”

Felahy worked as an operations manager at MVP Micro.

MVP Micro and affiliated companies sold counterfeit microchips to 420 buyers, including the U.S. Navy and defense contractors with false military-grade markings the men imported from China and Hong Kong, according to the Department of Justice.

— Lauren Williams

Twitter: @lawilliams30