Six men have been charged in a case involving an attempt to defraud the United States government and the Department of Defense (DOD).
The defendants have been accused of rigging bids, defrauding the government, and paying bribes and kickbacks to sell IT products and services to federal government purchasers.
This resulted in millions of dollars being overcharged to the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense (DOD), and resulted in swift action from the Justice Department.
The federal agency is pursuing the paperwork and transactions involved in the illicit sales and resale of IT goods and services to government purchasers, including the intelligence community.
The DCIS, the FBI Baltimore Field Office, the CIA Office of Inspector General, and the NSA Office of Inspector General investigated the case.
Six charged in case to defraud the United States government and DOD
Victor M. Marquez and Breal L. Madison Jr., both of Maryland, were the key interests for a federal court in Baltimore in two separate cases and court reports.
Marquez owns two IT companies that are involved in significant government contracts. He was charged with a “four-count indictment with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and major fraud against the United States for rigging bids and inflating the amount of money obtained from valuable IT contracts.”
Antwann C.K. Rawls, Marquez’s employee, and Scott A. Reefe, an IT sales executive, were charged in the case. It is alleged that the three abused their positions of trust to learn “sensitive, confidential procurement information, including procurement budgets for large U.S. government IT contracts.”
Madison Jr., however, was charged with a 13-count indictment with “conspiracy, bribery of a public official, mail fraud and money laundering for orchestrating a years-long scheme to defraud his employer and the United States out of over $7 million in connection with the sale of IT products to various government agencies.”
Two individuals were charged alongside Madison Jr., Brandon Scott Glisson, an IT contractor providing IT services to the U.S. government, and Glisson’s supervisor, Lawrence A. Eady, a former senior government employee.
Alleged 3 worked to defraud the U.S.
It was alleged that the three individuals worked in tandem to defraud the United States by siphoning off money that reportedly reached the $9m mark and wired it to Madison’s shell company, Trident Technology Solutions, and another unnamed entity.
They used the money to purchase luxury items, such as the Vanquish VQ58 yacht and a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan. They reportedly sent $630,000 in bribes to Eady in exchange for Eady’s continued cooperation in purchasing the stock sold by Madison Jr.
“There is no place for fraudsters and crooks scheming to manipulate the government bidding process for personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office. “The FBI remains steadfastly committed to identifying, investigating, and bringing to justice those conspiring to enrich themselves by cheating taxpayers.”
Image: Pixlr.
