Two men employed by a machine products vendor in Albany, Ga., have pleaded guilty to bribing a public official working for a military organization at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany (MCLB-Albany) to secure contracts for machine products, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore for the Middle District of Georgia.
Thomas J. Cole Jr., 43, and Fredrick W. Simon, 55, both of Albany, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands in the Middle District of Georgia to one count of bribery of a public official.
During their guilty pleas, Cole, the general manager of an Albany-based machine products vendor, and Simon, an employee responsible for processing sales orders, admitted to participating in a scheme to secure sales order contracts from the Maintenance Center Albany (MCA) at MCLB-Albany by subverting a competitive bid process. The MCA is responsible for rebuilding and repairing ground combat and combat support equipment, much of which has been utilized in military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other parts of the world. To accomplish the scheme, Cole and Simon bribed a MCA purchase tech responsible for placing machine product orders. Cole and Simon admitted to participating in the scheme at the purchase tech’s suggestion, after Simon had spoken with the purchase tech about how his company could obtain business from the MCA. Cole and Simon admitted that, at the purchase tech’s request, they paid the purchase tech a bribe of at least $75 for each of the more than 1,000 sales orders MCA placed with their company. According to court documents, the purchase tech would transmit sales bids to Simon and then communicate privately to him exactly how much money the company should bid for each particular order. Cole and Simon admitted that these orders were extremely profitable, often times exceeding the fair market value of the machine products, sometimes by as much as 1,000 percent.
For more on this article, click here.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
This information is intended to be
educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.
A newly-issued guidance memorandum from the DOL says that defense contractors do not need to send out WARN notices to their employees in advance of the mandatory sequestration cuts currently slated for January 2, 2013. As part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, there will be large cuts in the defense budget, which may result in huge layoffs to defense contractor workforces on January 2 unless some further deal can be reached in Congress regarding the deficit.
Pursuant to WARN, the defense contractors are required to notify their workers and state and local governmental agencies of mass layoffs 60 days in advance of the layoffs taking place - which would mean in this case that the notices would have to be mailed to potentially hundreds of thousands of workers just a few days before the upcoming November Presidential election.
The DOL now says that defense contractor employers don't need to send out WARN notices because of the possibility that a deal could be reached on the mandatory sequestration cuts between now and January 2, 2013. According to the DOL, not sending out a notice would be consistent with other situations where there was uncertainty about the cancellation of a defense contract.
One problem for employers, however, is that WARN mandates strict compliance and also provides per diem civil penalties that could stack up quickly in the event of a class action involving a large number of employees. Another problem is procedural: the DOL does not enforce the Act and its guidance could provide flimsy protection to an employer facing a WARN action. As such, it is an open question whether the DOL's guidance would be enough to block an employee from suing under WARN if the employer fails to provide the required notice in advance of the sequestration cuts slated to take place on January 2, 2013.
Employers facing possible layoffs as a result of the sequestration process should make sure to check with counsel so they can weigh the risks associated with sending (or not sending) a WARN notice based on the DOL's guidance.
This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.
