conspiracy | The Contracting Education Academy

November 27, 2019 By cs

New York-based company was caught allegedly selling Chinese-made hardware to the DoD

Aventura Technologies, based out of Long Island, New York, was just busted by the government after allegedly having fraudulently sold security gear to the U.S. military for years, racking up millions in federal contract money.

According to Aventura’s website, which as of November 12 is still up and running, the company claimed to be a “true single-source manufacturer providing end-to-end hardware and software solutions.”

Some of these hardware solutions included ground-based radar, turnstiles, and closed-circuit television systems, all of which the company claimed were manufactured in America. Between 2007 and 2018, Aventura reportedly supplied various branches of the U.S. military with over $20 million dollars of said equipment.

From November 2010 to the present day, it’s estimated that Aventura pulled in over $88 million in sales to both the government and the private sector.

The sting that eventually brought down Aventura was a few years in the making, including an anonymous tip in 2017, and the discovery of Chinese lettering on a body camera by Air Force personnel the following year.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/gearscout/irons/2019/11/14/this-new-york-based-company-was-just-caught-allegedly-selling-chinese-made-hardware-to-the-dod/

April 25, 2019 By AMK

State Dept. contracting officer indicted for bribery and procurement fraud

A 17-count indictment was unsealed today charging Zaldy N. Sabino, a contracting officer with the U.S. Department of State, with conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, and making false statements.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, Inspector General Steve A. Linick of the U.S. Department of State and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

According to the indictment, between November 2012 and early 2017, Sabino and the owner of a Turkish construction firm allegedly engaged in a bribery and procurement fraud scheme in which Sabino received at least $239,300 in cash payments from the Turkish owner while Sabino supervised multi-million dollar construction contracts awarded to the Turkish owner’s business partners and while Sabino made over a half million in structured cash deposits into his personal bank accounts. Sabino allegedly concealed his unlawful relationship by, among other things, making false statements on financial disclosure forms and during his background reinvestigation.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/state-department-contracting-officer-indicted-bribery-and-procurement-fraud

February 14, 2019 By AMK

Former COR sentenced to 5 years in prison for conspiracy and bribery

Jerry T. Vertefeuille of Niceville, Florida was sentenced on Feb. 12th to 60 months in prison. Co-defendant Christopher A. Carter of Fort Walton Beach, Florida is scheduled to be sentenced on February 15th.

Vertefeuille pleaded guilty to conspiracy (to commit theft of honest services and wire fraud), bribery of a public official, and obtaining and disclosing procurement information.

Vertefeuille was a federal Contracting Officer Representative (COR) for the 96 Test Wing Maintenance Group (96 MXG) at Eglin Air Force Base. His duties included overseeing maintenance work and initially approving purchases and invoices.

In 2007, Vertefeuille helped Carter, as the owner of TCC Services, Unlimited, LLC, win a paint booth maintenance contract, as well as multiple contract renewals. Vertefeuille received kickbacks in exchange for approving Carter’s fraudulent invoices and recommending the renewal of TCC’s contract.

U.S. Attorney Keefe said: “Public corruption is an attack on the rule of law, which is the mission of the Department of Justice and the cornerstone of American government. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, is committed to upholding the public’s faith in honest services and enforcing high ethical standards.”

“Corruption in the government procurement process damages the public trust and ultimately degrades the warfighting mission of the Department of Defense,” commented Special Agent in Charge John F. Khin with the southeast field office of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). “DCIS, along with our investigative partners, remains committed to pursuing and bringing to justice anyone who uses fraud and deception to undermine the critical missions of the Department of Defense and the safety of our communities.”

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl/pr/former-government-contracting-officer-representative-sentenced-60-months-prison

November 16, 2018 By AMK

Captain from Georgia is latest Navy officer caught in ‘Fat Leonard’ corruption

The 350-pound Leonard Glenn Francis — known in Navy circles as “Leonard the Legend” for his wild-side lifestyle — spent decades cultivating relationships with Navy officers, many of whom developed a blind spot to his fraudulent ways. In the past three years, 33 defendants have been charged and 22 have pleaded guilty, many admitting to accepting things of value from Francis — also known as “Fat Leonard” — in exchange for helping the contractor win and maintain contracts and overbill the Navy by millions of dollars.

On Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, another Navy captain pleaded guilty to criminal conflict of interest charges and a former Navy master chief was sentenced to 17 months in prison today on corruption charges. The defendants are among the latest U.S. Navy officials to plead guilty and be sentenced in the expansive corruption and fraud investigation involving foreign defense contractor “Fat Leonard” Francis and his Singapore-based ship husbanding company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA).

Jeffrey Breslau of Cumming, Georgia pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conflict of interest before U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino of the Southern District of California. Breslau was charged in September 2018. Retired Master Chief Ricarte Icmat David of Concepcion, Tarlac, Philippines, was sentenced by Judge Sammartino, who also ordered him to serve a year of supervised release and pay restitution of $30,000. David was charged in August 2018 and pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.

According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, from October 2009 until July 2012, Breslau was a captain in the U.S. Navy assigned as director of public affairs for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, headquartered in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As part of his duties, Breslau was involved in devising the Navy’s public affairs communications strategy, and provided public affairs guidance to Pacific Fleet components and other Navy commands. From August 2012 until July 2014, Breslau was assigned to the commanding officer for the Joint Public Affairs Support Element in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was responsible for leading joint crisis communications teams.

Breslau admitted that from March 2012 until September 2013, while serving in the Navy, he provided Francis with public relations consulting services, including providing advice on how to respond to issues and controversies related to Francis’s ship husbanding business with the Navy. These included issues related to port visit costs, allegations of malfeasance such as the unauthorized dumping of waste, disputes with competitors, and issues with Pacific Fleet and contracting personnel. During the course of his consulting agreement with Francis, Breslau authored, reviewed or edited at least 33 separate documents; authored at least 135 emails providing advice to Francis; provided at least 14 instances of “talking points” in advance of meetings between Francis and high ranking Navy personnel; and “ghostwrote” numerous emails on Francis’s behalf to be transmitted to Navy personnel. During the course of this consulting agreement, Francis paid Breslau approximately $65,000 without Breslau disclosing the agreement to the Navy, Breslau admitted.

As part of his guilty plea, David admitted that he was assigned various logistics positions with the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, including with the Fleet Industrial Supply Center in Yokosuka, Japan from June 2001 to July 2004; on the USS Essex from July 2004 to August 2007; on the USS Kitty Hawk from September 2007 to August 2008; and on the USS George Washington from September 2008 to July 2010. In these positions, David was responsible for ordering and verifying goods and services for the ships on which he served, including from contractors during port calls. Throughout this period, David received from Francis various things of value, including five star hotel rooms during every port visit, he admitted.

David further admitted that he repeatedly facilitated fraud by allowing Francis and GDMA to inflate the husbanding invoices to bill for services never rendered. For example, David instructed Francis to inflate invoices for the USS Essex’s anticipated November 2007 port visit to the Philippines. As David transitioned to a new position aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, on or about May 8, 2008, Francis’s company paid approximately 84,637.00 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) for hotel reservations at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong for Navy personnel assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk including 10,396 HKD for David’s four-night stay in a Harbor View Room, David admitted.

Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribery and fraud charges, admitting that he presided over a massive, decade-long conspiracy involving “scores” of U.S. Navy officials, tens of millions of dollars in fraud and millions of dollars in bribes and lavish gifts, including luxury travel, airline upgrades, five-star hotel accommodations, top-shelf alcohol, the services of prostitutes, Cuban cigars, Kobe beef and Spanish suckling pigs.

The case was investigated by DCIS, NCIS and the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

For earlier reports on this scandal, see: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/?s=fat

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-navy-captain-pleads-guilty-and-former-master-chief-petty-officer-sentenced-sweeping

September 12, 2018 By AMK

Turkish man charged with conspiracy to defraud DoD of $7 million, violating Arms Export Control Act

A Turkish man who owns a New Jersey defense contracting business has been charged in a scheme to fraudulently acquire lucrative manufacturing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and for conspiring to export military technical drawings to Turkey without a license from the State Department, the Justice Department announced last week.

Ferdi Murat Gul, a/k/a “Fred Gul,” of Turkey, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 5, 2018, on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, and one substantive count of violating the Act. He is believed to be currently at large in Turkey.

According to the indictment:

Gul is the principal owner, chief executive officer, and general manager of two companies located in the United States: Bright Machinery Manufacturing Group Inc. (BMM), a defense contracting company located in Paterson, New Jersey; and FMG Machinery Group (FMG), a purported manufacturing company in Paterson and Long Island City, New York. Gul also maintains an ownership interest in HFMG Insaat (HFMG), a manufacturing company in Turkey.
Over approximately five years, BMM fraudulently obtained hundreds of contracts with the DoD by falsely claiming that the military parts it contracted to produce would be manufactured in the United States. From October 2010 through June 2015, the value of the contracts fraudulently awarded to BMM was approximately $7 million.
Gul routinely submitted electronic bids for DoD contracts that contained false representations about BMM’s purported domestic manufacturing operations. He falsely submitted quotes claiming that BMM would provide military goods manufactured in the United States, when in fact the company relied almost exclusively on Gul’s Turkish-based production facilities. In acquiring contracts, Gul routinely and unlawfully exported drawings and technical data, some of which was subject to U.S. export control laws, in order to secretly manufacture military parts in Turkey. Gul and his conspirators then fraudulently supplied those foreign-made parts to unwitting DoD customers in the United States.
Gul and his conspirators concealed their illicit manufacturing activities and ongoing fraud by routinely submitting forged certifications and fabricated information by e-mail to DoD representatives in New Jersey. They falsely represented that BMM and its U.S.-based subcontractors performed necessary quality control procedures in their purported domestic manufacture of military parts.

BMM fraudulently acquired 346 contracts from the DoD to domestically manufacture military parts, including parts for torpedoes for the U.S. Navy, bomb ejector racks and armament utilized in U.S. Air Force aircraft, and firearms and mine clearance systems used by U.S. military personnel abroad. Testing by the DoD revealed that some parts had numerous design flaws and non-conformities and were unusable.

The wire fraud counts each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The Arms Export Control Act violations each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The Arms Export Control Act prohibits the export of defense articles and defense services without first obtaining a license from the U.S. Department of States.

The charges and allegations in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/owner-defense-firm-charged-conspiracy-defraud-department-defense-7-million-violate-arms

Aventura Technologies, based out of Long Island, New York, was just busted by the government after allegedly having fraudulently sold security gear to the U.S. military for years, racking up millions in federal contract money.

A 17-count indictment was unsealed today charging Zaldy N. Sabino, a contracting officer with the U.S. Department of State, with conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, and making false statements.

Jerry T. Vertefeuille of Niceville, Florida was sentenced on Feb. 12th to 60 months in prison. Co-defendant Christopher A. Carter of Fort Walton Beach, Florida is scheduled to be sentenced on February 15th.

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