A former owner of a government contracting company that serviced the Military Sealift Command (MSC) has been sentenced to 60 months in prison, and to pay a $15,000 fine. The sentence was handed down on July 28, 2017.
Joseph P. Allen of Panama City, Florida was charged with participation in a bribery conspiracy from approximately 1999 to 2014, in which he provided a contracting official at MSC with almost $3 million in bribes. Allen pled guilty on April 19 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
According to the statement of facts included in Allen’s guilty plea, Allen conspired with a government contracting official, Scott B. Miserendino, Sr., to use Miserendino’s position at MSC to enrich themselves through bribery. Specifically, beginning in about 1999, Miserendino used his position and influence at MSC to facilitate and expand Allen’s company’s commission agreement with a third-party telecommunications company that sold maritime satellite services to MSC. Unknown to MSC or the telecommunications company, throughout the scheme, Allen paid half of the commissions he received from that telecommunications company to Miserendino as bribes.
For his role in the scheme, Miserendino was charged in a five-count indictment on May 4, with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services mail fraud, one count of bribery, and three counts of honest services mail fraud. His trial is currently scheduled for October 31, 2017. Note that the charges and allegations against Miserendino contained in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The Norfolk offices of the FBI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case.
