Two Florida defense contractors have been charged with bribery and fraud for allegedly corrupting the procurement process for a U.S. Army technology innovation lab in Hawaii, the Justice Department announced.
Leonard Pick, 62, of Palm Beach Shores, and Brian Kent, 59, of Tampa, were indicted in the District of Hawaii on May 14 in connection with a scheme that allegedly corrupted contracting for the U.S. Army Pacific Command’s Hawaii-Pacific Innovation Campus, a facility intended to test new technologies for the Defense Department.
According to the indictment, unsealed Tuesday, Pick and Kent conspired from January 2021 to October 2022 to bribe a U.S. Army employee with approximately $1.25 million over five years, fraudulently inflating government contracting costs to conceal the bribe payments. Kent is additionally accused of separately inflating contract costs to funnel approximately $680,000 to his personal consulting business, beginning around September 2020.
“When defense contractors obtain government-funded work through bribery and fraud, they rob our military and the American people of the benefits of a fair, competitive procurement process,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel W. Glad of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson for the District of Hawaii said the conduct “harms honest companies seeking to compete fairly, steals from our taxpayers, and erodes faith in our government institutions.” FBI Special Agent in Charge David Porter of the Honolulu Field Office called the scheme “a profound betrayal of the public trust” and warned that the bureau would “aggressively pursue” anyone who corrupts government procurement.
Both defendants face one count each of conspiracy to commit bribery and major fraud against the United States, one count of bribery, one count of major fraud, and one count of wire fraud. Kent faces an additional count of major fraud. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The most serious charge, wire fraud, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Bribery carries up to 15 years and a fine of either $250,000 or three times the bribe’s monetary value, whichever is greater. Major fraud carries up to 10 years and a $1 million fine.
The investigation was conducted by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii, the FBI, the Army Criminal Investigative Division, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the GSA Office of Inspector General, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
The charges stem from the Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force, a multiagency effort targeting fraud and anticompetitive conduct in government contracting. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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