A former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official at a facility in Illinois will plead guilty in a fraud case involving a staffing company founded by his wife, Esperanza Brandt, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces up to 20 years in prison on one count of wire fraud.

The official, William Brandt, tried to hide his conflict of interest and secretly agreed to raise the bill rates for pharmacists from the company among other things, according to the Department of Justice.

Brandt served as associate director of the VA's Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy in Hines IL from 1996 to April 2007. Pronto staffing, the Brandts' company, billed the VA for more than $8 million in services to the pharmacy between 2000 and 2007.

Pronto provided pharmacists to the site while Brandt worked supervising pharmacists, according to the Department of Justice. Brandt also claimed Pronto was solely managed by his wife to avoid conflict-of-interest laws for federal employees.

In addition, the Department of Justice reported the Brandts secretly agreed to raise billing rates to the VA for pharmacists. It also reported Pronto sought certification as a woman-owned, minority-owned small disadvantaged business but agreed to let another company masquerade as Pronto in order to qualify for contracts set aside for diversity and disadvantaged firms.

Brandt agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and another count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. The conspiracy count has a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Esperanza Brandt and Pronto Staffing agreed to plead guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

This is the second case involving the same facility, according to the Department of Justice. The site's director, Joel Gostolmelsky pleaded guilty in July 2008 for accepting illegal gratuities in connection with awarding staffing and supply contracts, including for temporary pharmacists.

The facility processes and sends out more than 90,000 prescriptions each day to veterans.