A former civilian employee of the Department of Defense pleaded guilty in federal court this week to charges he and four cohorts conspired to access a government computer to bilk the government of thousands of dollars.

Jesse D. Lane Jr., who also is a former member of the California Army National Guard, pleaded to one count of conspiracy and one count of honest services wire fraud. He also admitted to conspiring with four other individuals to do the same, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He faces a total of 25 years in prison -- five years for conspiracy and 20 years for honest services wire fraud. Lane, who is slated to be sentenced on Sept. 24, also faces three years of supervised release.

Lane was arrested in March after being indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California on one count of conspiracy, nine counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count obstruction of justice.

The government reported that as part of his plea, Lane told the court that he and his co-conspirators were members of the 223rd Finance Detachment, a unit of the California National Guard that processes pay for Army National Guard members. They were deployed together to Iraq and Kuwait from March 2004 until February 2005, when they returned to their home drilling post in Compton, Calif.

Lane admitted that beginning in March 2005, and continuing through August 2005, he accessed a DoD pay-processing computer system and inputted thousands of dollars in unauthorized DoD pay and entitlements for himself and his co-conspirators. In return, Lane's cohorts kicked back at least half of the money they received to Lane.

On Nov. 13, 2006, Lane's co-conspirators Jennifer Anjakos of Chula Vista, Calif., Lomeli Chavez of Oceanside, Calif., and Derryl Hollier and Luis Lopez of Los Angeles each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on related charges. Their sentencings are scheduled for Sept. 10.