service disabled | The Contracting Education Academy

March 6, 2020 By cs

Contracting official sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for role in bribery scheme to rig VA contracts

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official Dwane Nevins has been sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for corruption offenses. He took cash bribes and then extorted undercover small business owners so that he could have his “Christmas.”

We first reported on the allegations against Nevins in September 2018. Then, in January of this year, we reported on the sentencing of a businessman who conspired with Nevins. Sentencing of one more individual in this case is scheduled later this month.

According to Court records, Dwane Nevins — a small business specialist at the VA’s Network Contracting Office in Colorado — agreed to take bribes offered by co-defendants Robert Revis, Anthony Bueno, and an undercover FBI agent to help them manipulate the process for bidding on federal contracts with the VA.

Revis and Bueno, working with Nevins, agreed to submit fraudulent bids from service-disabled-veteran-owned small businesses under contract with their consulting company so that federal contracts would be set aside for only those companies. As Bueno put it, the conspirators would then “own all the dogs on the track.”
Nevins, Bueno and Revis worked to conceal the nature of the bribe payments by either kicking back to Nevins a portion of the payments made to their consulting company, or by asking their consulting company’s clients to pay Nevins for sham training classes related to federal contracting. At one of those sham trainings in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevins accepted a $4,500 cash bribe from the undercover FBI agent.

After complaining about not being paid by Revis and Bueno for his participation in the scheme, Nevins used his official position at the VA to extort approximately $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent, telling the agent that “the train don’t go without me. You know what I mean? I’m the engine. I’m the caboose. I’m the engine room.” Nevins also told the undercover FBI agent “this is a business and businessmen need to get paid . . . . so I can have my Christmas, you know what I’m saying?”

Anthony Bueno was previously sentenced in this case to 30 months imprisonment. He was also sentenced to 63 months imprisonment for his role in a separately indicted wire fraud scheme in which he used false representations about investment opportunities to take over a million dollars from several victims.

Robert Revis pleaded guilty in April 2019 to an Information charging him with a single count of supplementing the salary of a federal official. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 2, 2020.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/former-veterans-affairs-official-sentenced-18-months-federal-prison-role-bribery-scheme

March 4, 2020 By cs

IG says Pentagon awarded $876 million in contracts meant for disabled vets to ineligible companies

Small businesses owned or run by disabled veterans may have been cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars in Defense Department contracts by unscrupulous firms who were ineligible for the awards.

This information is contained in an Inspector General’s report released to the public on Feb. 20, 2020.

The IG’s audit found that the DoD “awarded $876.8 million in contracts to ineligible contractors and did not implement procedures to ensure compliance with the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) subcontracting requirements after the contracts were awarded.”

At least 16 of the 29 contractors reviewed in the report who received business from the DoD on the basis that they met the disabled veteran requirements were found to be ineligible, the IG’s office said.

Unless the DoD conducts better oversight, “service-disabled veterans may be in jeopardy of not receiving contract awards intended for them, and the DoD will be at risk of misreporting the amounts for SDVOSB participation,” the 29-page report states.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/20/pentagon-awarded-876m-contracts-meant-disabled-vets-ineligible-companies-ig.html

January 20, 2020 By cs

Businessman who tried to ‘own every dog on the track’ sentenced for conspiring to bribe VA contract specialist

The Justice Department announced in Denver last week the sentencing of a businessman who engaged in a conspiracy with a Veterans Affairs’ contracting official to manipulate contract awards to benefit a consulting company that purportedly represented service-disabled veteran owned small businesses.

Anthony Bueno was sentenced to serve 30 months in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for his role in a conspiracy to bribe a VA official so that clients of his company would gain an unfair advantage in the VA contracting process. Bueno was remanded into custody immediately after the sentencing hearing.

The VA’s contracting official, Dwane Nevins, previously pleaded guilty in September 2019 to every count of an indictment charging him with this scheme, including counts of conspiracy, receiving bribes, extortion, and criminal conflicts of interests. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 19, 2020.

According to court records:

Bueno and his business partner, Robert Revis, agreed to help an undercover FBI agent, who was posing as a veteran and small business owner, bribe Nevins, a contracting specialist at the VA’s Network Contracting Office in Colorado.
As part of the bribery scheme, Bueno and Revis, working with Nevins, agreed to submit bids from small businesses owned by veterans disabled during military service (one of whom was the undercover FBI agent) under contract with Buenon and Revis’ consulting company so that federal contracts would be set aside for only those companies.
As Bueno explained to the undercover agent, the conspirators would then “own all the dogs on the track,” meaning their clients were guaranteed to get the contracts.
Bueno, Revis and Nevins worked to conceal the nature of the bribe payments by either kicking back to Nevins a portion of the payments made to the consulting company, or by asking the consulting company’s clients to pay Nevins directly for sham training classes related to federal contracting.

Robert Revis pleaded guilty in April 2019 to an Information charging him with a single count of supplementing the salary of a federal official. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 2, 2020. Bueno pleaded guilty on September 17, 2019.

Bueno has also pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money arising from a completely separate wire fraud scheme in which he used false representations about investment opportunities to take over a million dollars from several victims. Sentencing in that case, pending before United States District Judge William J. Martinez, is scheduled for January 23, 2019.

The case was jointly investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/businessman-sentenced-two-and-half-years-imprisonment-conspiring-bribe-veterans-affairs

January 22, 2014 By AMK

Sham charged in $1.2 million veteran business fraud

A Bergen County, N.J., woman was arrested on January 8, 2014 on charges that she fraudulently represented her company as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in order to obtain more than $1.2 million worth of government contracts set aside for disabled veterans, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Miriam Friedman, 54, of Teaneck, N.J., surrendered to special agents from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of the Inspector General, as a result of a federal criminal complaint charging her with wire fraud. She is scheduled to make her initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark III in Newark federal court.

According to the unsealed complaint:

Friedman is the owner of Office Dimensions Inc., a company in Teaneck that sells furniture and design services to industrial and government customers. Friedman and her husband control Office Dimensions and all its revenues, as well as run the company’s daily operations. Neither served in the U.S. military, but Friedman’s father-in-law is a retired U.S. military veteran.

On Nov. 23, 2009, Friedman certified in a central registry for government contractors that Office Dimensions was a service-disabled veteran-owned small business. In her certification, she allegedly falsely claimed that her father-in-law was the owner and operator, even though he had very little involvement with Office Dimensions and was not service-disabled. Friedman then bid for VA contracts set aside for service-disabled veterans who own their businesses.

From January 2010 through November 2011, the VA paid Office Dimensions more than $1.2 million on fraudulently obtained contracts to which Friedman was not entitled.

The wire fraud count with which Friedman was charged is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross loss or gain cause by the offense.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey G. Hughes; the U.S. General Services Administration, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Adams; and IRS – Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen, for the investigation leading to today’s arrest.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott B. McBride of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in Newark.

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

See District of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Office’s press release at: http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/Press/files/Friedman,%20Miriam%20Arrest%20News%20Release.html

March 12, 2012 By AMK

Small Business panel advances six pro-contractor bills

A package of six bills designed to steer more federal contract opportunities toward small businesses cleared the House Small Business Committee last Wednesday (3/7/2012), amid bipartisan frustration at the Obama administration’s approach to helping what all parties see as a key sector for creating jobs.

The marked-up bills would raise the percentage of federal contracts that should go to small businesses, elevate agency Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization offices, crack down on large firms hiding behind small business fronts to win contracts, and require agencies that insource previously contracted work to publish their rationale online and give contractors more of an opportunity to protest.

Other bills would clarify the eligibility of small businesses for multiple award contracts, bring in small businesses at an earlier stage of the bidding process, give priority to small firms in areas with high unemployment, open up more General Services Administration contracts for commercial purchases to small businesses, and provide more training for Small Business Administration-based procurement center representatives.

Noting that the government spends $500 billion annually in contracting, committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., said, “improving small business opportunities is a triple play — small businesses win more contracts; workers win as the small businesses create jobs; and taxpayers win because small businesses bring competition, innovation and lower prices to save the government money.”

Perhaps the most far-reaching bill is the chairman’s own (H.R. 3850), the Government Efficiency Through Small Business Contracting Act, which would raise the governmentwide small business contracting goal from 23 percent to 25 percent. Graves estimated it would provide $11 billion in new work for small business. It also would raise the current goal of giving 35.9 percent of subcontracting to small businesses to 40 percent. The other bills are the Small Business Advocate Act (H.R. 3851), Subcontracting Transparency and Reliability Act (H.R. 3893), Small Business Opportunity Act (H.R. 3980), Early Stage Small Business Contracting Act (H.R. 4121) and Small Business Procurement Improvement Act (H.R. 4118).

Though most of the markup action appeared bipartisan, some Democrats were uneasy with the insourcing transparency requirement. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the panel’s ranking member, said it might encourage costly litigation and clog the Government Accountability Office with protests instead of creating jobs. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said businesses that lose contracts already have resources to challenge the decisions and noted insourcing of inherently governmental activities has been codified twice in Defense authorization acts.

There also was disagreement over set-asides for economically and socially disadvantaged businesses. An amendment Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., offered would have raised the set-aside from 5 percent of the total value of a prime contract to 7.5 percent. It was withdrawn pending further negotiations before floor action.

“I’ve tried not to favor one group of small businesses over another — I don’t want to pick winners and losers, I want to help all small businesses compete,” Graves said. “Right now, we have one small business goal, and four subcategory goals — women, service-disabled veterans, [Historically Underutilized Business Zone] firms and small disadvantaged businesses. Each of the subcategories of small businesses can compete for small business contracts, so they all win when we increase the overall small business goal,” he added. “However, when we increase the small disadvantaged business goal, only about 9,200 firms benefit, instead of the 350,000 small businesses currently seeking to do business with the government.”

The hearing began with approval of the committee’s comments on President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget request for SBA. No one from the administration appeared to discuss it. Members of both parties complained the budget avoids tough choices, fails to cut duplicative programs and funds pilot projects not authorized by Congress.

A spokeswoman said SBA worked hard with the committee to lock down a hearing date on short notice, but could not make it on the one day that worked for the panel. Agency officials have, however, briefed congressional staff members and made an effort to answer all their questions about the fiscal 2013 budget, she said.

SBA declined to comment on the contractor legislation. The committee is scheduled to consider more contracting bills in the coming weeks.

Before the markup, the Professional Services Council, a contractors trade group, sent a letter backing most of the bills, but opposing some provisions. “We’re particularly pleased to see legislation that would protect small businesses from improper insourcing activities, ensure that no small business is deemed ineligible for small business programs because of SBA’s improper approach to calculating industry category size standards, and elevate the role of small business advocates in the contracting process,” President and Chief Executive Officer Stan Soloway said.

But he added, “Congress should not raise the small business prime contracting or subcontracting goals until it has accurate data about total small business participation in the federal marketplace at both the prime and subcontract levels.”

— by Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, March 8, 2012 at http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2012/03/small-business-panel-advances-six-pro-contractor-bills/41414

Small businesses owned or run by disabled veterans may have been cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars in Defense Department contracts by unscrupulous firms who were ineligible for the awards.

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