A former business partner of a U.S. military contractor was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison for his role in a years-long scheme to bribe U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at a U.S. military base in Kuwait during the Iraq War.
Finbar Charles, a citizen of Saint Lucia most recently residing in Baguio City, Philippines, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre of the Northern District of Alabama. Chief Judge Bowdre also ordered Charles to forfeit $228,558 in illicit gains. Charles pleaded guilty in July 2018 to one count of bribery of a federal official.
According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, Charles was a business partner of a former U.S. military contractor, Terry Hall. As Hall’s business partner, Charles admitted that he facilitated Hall and others in providing millions of dollars in bribes in approximately 2005 to 2007 to various U.S. Army officials in exchange for preferential treatment for Hall’s companies in connection with Department of Defense (DoD) contracts to deliver bottled water and construct security fencing to support U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait and Iraq.
As part of his role in this criminal conspiracy, Charles admitted that he managed bank accounts in Kuwait and the Philippines that he used to receive DoD payments and transfer illegal bribes to various U.S. Army contracting officials, including Majors Eddie Pressley, James Momon, and Chris Murray. All of those individuals, as well as at least 10 other co-conspirators, have pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes relating to this scheme. Charles admitted that he falsified loan and consulting agreements to conceal the true nature of the bribe payments to the Army officers, and that he personally received over $228,000 in illicit gains as a result of his participation.
This case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the FBI, and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance in this matter.
Reality Winner was sentenced yesterday to five years and three months in prison for removing classified national defense material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.
Indeed, Winner, in an interview with the FBI on June 3, 2017, admitted knowing at the time she stole and transmitted the intelligence report that it contained information about intelligence sources and methods, which information she knew was valuable to adversaries of the United States. Further, the information contained in the intelligence report had not been released to the public at the time Winner retained it and transmitted it to the online news outlet. Winner, who had received training regarding the proper handling, marking, transportation, and storage of classified information, knew that she was not permitted to remove the intelligence report from the facility where she worked, retain it, or transmit it to the news outlet.
U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Lydon states that Phillip Thompson of Augusta, GA was sentenced for conspiracy involving theft of government funds, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, § 371.
It’s not every day that the Federal Bureau of Investigation gives you an order.
In addition to just a simple reboot, Lever recommended following the manufacturer’s instructions on resetting the software in the device, also known as “firmware.”
Chinese government hackers have stolen large swaths of highly sensitive data on undersea warfare from a Navy contractor’s computers, 
Stamatios “Tom” Kousisis of Pennsylvania and Emanouel “Manny” Frangos of Ohio, along with Alpha Painting & Construction Co., Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland, and Liberty Maintenance, Inc. of Youngstown, Ohio were charged last week with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements in a scheme involving the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Program (DBE) in connection with Pennsylvania’s federally-funded Girard Point Bridge project and the federally-funded 30th Street Station.
In December 2010, PENNDOT awarded a contract for approximately $50.8 million to a joint venture of two companies referred to in the indictment as Company C and Company F, to perform structural steel painting and repairs and roadway reconstruction beneath and around AMTRAK’s 30th Street Train Station in Philadelphia. Company C and Company F entered into a subcontract, for approximately $15 million, for the Alpha-Liberty JV to perform the structural steel painting beneath 30th Street Station. As part of the bid process, Company C and Company F committed to subcontract approximately $1.7M in Disadvantaged Business work to Markias to supply paint materials for the 30th Street Project. Instead, according to the indictment, the Alpha-Liberty JV and Kousisis ordered materials needed for their work on the 30th Station Project directly from suppliers that were not DBEs, and used Markias as a mere pass-through or front, to make it falsely appear that the DBE requirements had been met on the 30th Station Project when those requirements had in fact not been met. Markias did not perform a commercially useful function.
If convicted the defendants face a statutory maximum sentence of 170 years in prison, a possible fine, supervised release, and a $1,600 special assessment.
Ultimately, between 2010 and 2015, Mitchell and Richards allegedly paid Bickers and companies associated with her over $2 million in an attempt get City of Atlanta contracts through bribery. In this same period, the City of Atlanta paid Mitchell’s and Richards’ businesses approximately $17 million for the government contracts they secured.
According to U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak, from at least 2015 to January 2017, Smith met privately with a vendor on multiple occasions, frequently at Atlanta-area restaurants. During these meetings, Smith and the vendor discussed Atlanta procurement projects, bids, and solicitations. Often at the time of these meetings, the vendor was actively seeking contracts, projects, and work with Atlanta. After most of these meetings, the vendor and Smith met in the restaurant’s bathroom, where the vendor paid Smith approximately $1,000 in cash. In return for the bribe payments, the vendor expected Smith to use his position and power to assist the vendor with contracting/procurement with Atlanta and to furnish the vendor with future benefits and favors when needed.
In the case involving the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), beginning in 2010, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Erves retained three different vendors purportedly to perform maintenance projects for MARTA. From approximately June 2010 to December 2016, Erves had fake invoices prepared on behalf of the three vendors for more than 40 maintenance projects for which no work was performed. Erves then used the false invoices as bases to authorize payments to the three vendors. In many cases, Erves personally approved payments to the vendors knowing that the vendors had not performed any work for MARTA. After receiving payment, the three vendors funneled most of the money they received from MARTA into Erves’s personal bank accounts. Subsequently, Erves used the money deposited into his accounts to pay personal expenses, such as multiple purchases at high-end department stores and the purchase of a Porsche 911. Based on Erves’s authority and representations, MARTA paid the three vendors more than $500,000 for maintenance projects where no work was actually performed.