Charles K. Edwards, a former acting inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been charged in a scheme from 2014 to 2017 to steal government proprietary software and information from confidential databases as part of a larger scheme to defraud the government.

A federal grand jury returned a 16-count indictment against Edwards, 59, on Friday, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. Edwards left his DHS position in December 2013, but allegedly used his continued connections in the department to facilitate his scheme.

Edwards, along with fellow DHS employee Murali Yamazula Venkata, 54, and others, are alleged to have participated in a scheme to defraud the government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). They also reportedly accessed government databases containing personal identifying information of DHS and USPS employees in what the DOJ believed was an effort by Edwards’ company, Delta Business Solutions, to enhance the DHS-OIG’s software and sell a version of it to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for a profit.

The DOJ assessed that Venkata and other remaining DHS employees helped Edwards steal the software, and further assisted him in configuring his computer to accept the software, as well as to set up a home server with which he could continue to modify the stolen technology into the version he planned to pass off to the Department of Agriculture. That stolen software also reportedly contained the logs of personal identifying information for the DHS and USPS employees.

As he worked on the project, Edwards reportedly retained Indian software developers. It was not clear from the DOJ press release if those foreign nationals would have been able to access and view the personal information of U.S. government employees compromised by Edwards alleged scheme.