Another Bribery/Kickback Scheme Uncovered

An active duty Colonel working out of Ft. Gordon, GA, his wife, and a high ranking employee of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, a $600+ million company with mostly Government work, were indicted this week by a Federal grand jury for their alleged roles in a bribery and kickback scheme.

According to the allegations contained in the indictment, beginning in 2008 and lasting almost 10 years, Colonel Anthony Roper conspired with his wife, Audra Roper, and Dwayne Fulton, the Kratos employee to solicit and accept cash bribes in exchange for rigging the award of over $20 million in U.S. Army contracts to selected individuals and companies. The indictment further alleges that in an attempt to hide their bribery and fraud schemes, the defendants attempted to obstruct an official investigation into their criminal conduct (i.e. they lied to investigators). The scheme utilized various shell companies, such as Quadar Group and OzTEK Research LLC to launder the bribes.

Among the allegations are these: Colonel Roper signed sole-source justifications and provided all requisite approvals and justifications to ensure that certain companies were awarded and remained the prime contractor on certain Army contracts. He falsely represented to the U.S. Army and to others that the contractor employees were performing and had performed work under certain Army contracts. He helped prepare false and fraudulent applications and documents that were submitted to the Army and the SBA. He prepared false invoices from shell companies, claiming work that was never performed. He falsified his Government Ethics Form relating to additional income, salary, fees, commissions and gifts.

The indictment does not state how much was received by the defendants over the 10 years nor is there any information related to how the fraud was uncovered. The indictment listed three payments between December 2012 and December 2014 totaling $60,000 but evidently that is only a fraction of the amounts involved.

These, of course, are just allegations at this point. The defendants are entitled to fair trials. Also, it would seem from reading the indictment that more people will be charged in this scheme.

It will be interesting to see how Kratos characterizes this indictment in its next SEC filing.