Three Guilty Pleas in Bribery Scheme

Here's a guy that both paid and accepted bribes.

Last September, John Winslett, a construction manager for an unnamed contractor performing work at Schofield Barracks (Hawaii) pleaded guilty to paying bribes totaling more than $100,000 to two Army contracting officials in exchange in order to steer more than $19 million in contracts to his company. He also pleaded guilty to accepting $723 thousand in kickbacks from a subcontractor in exchange for assigning work to that subcontractor (online source).

The two Army contracting officials got nailed as well. Last May, an Army civilian at Schofield Barracks pleaded guilty to accepting "tens of thousands" of dollars in bribes from Mr. Winslett. in exchange for sensitive internal DoD procurement information and otherwise use his position to benefit Mr. Winslett's company (online source).

Then, most recently, a third person involved in this scheme also pleased guilty to accepting more than $100 thousand in bribes from Mr. Winslett consisting of automobiles, cash, and firearms, in exchange for favorable treatment toward the contractor (online source).

Do you know what your employees are up to? How much autonomy do you give employees to carry out the purposes of your company? Is there any accountability? Is there any oversight? Too often, company representatives that are "bringing in the business" are left alone and even heralded. Later, some of them are exposed for their less than honest dealings, like Mr. Winslett was.

The Government has similar problems - employees who accept 'gifts' or even outright bribes in exchange for steering work to a certain contractor and usually, these schemes flourish because of a lack of oversight.