$3 Million Bribery Conviction and Sentencing

Mr. Miserendino accepted bribes from a Government contractor for six years. He's now been sentenced to seven years in federal prison. He's already serving an eight year sentence for an unrelated bribery conviction.

The Justice Department announced the sentencing of Mr. Miserendino for his role in a bribery and fraud conspiracy through which he received nearly $3 million in bribes. That amount of money really makes one wonder about the integrity of Government contracting. Does the Government really know what its buying? And if so, is the Government convinced that the prices are fair and reasonable?

Mr. Miserendino retired as a Navy Lieutenant and went to work as a Government contractor at the Military Sealift Command (MSC). Evidently MSC employs a few contractors among its predominantly military and civilian workforce. Mr. Miserendino didn't work alone however. He was working with Mr. Allen who owned another unnamed Government contractor. Mr. Allen has already been found guilty and is serving a five year sentence for his role in this conspiracy.

While working for an MSC contractor, Mr. Miserendino used his position to push work to Mr. Allen's company. Allen's company performed services including  who received "commissions" from a telecommunications company selling satellite services to the Navy. Allen "pushed" the particular satellite services company over competing companies. Allen received $6 million in "commissions" from the satellite services company and in turn, paid half of those commissions ($3 million) to Miserendino. Apparently, the satellite services company had no knowledge that Allen paid half of his commissions to Miserendino as bribes.

As is often the case in these Justice Department announcements, there is no mention as to how this bribery scheme was uncovered. Perhaps Mr. Miserendino was living way beyond his apparent means and someone took notice. Perhaps there was a whistleblower in Allen's organization. Perhaps, after the original bribery conviction, the investigators started digging a bit deeper into Mr. Miserendino's activities. We just don't know how the guy was caught.