Robert L. Neal
Posted on 10/19/2002 7:11:37 AM PDT by Al B.
ALEXANDRIA -- Two former top-level Pentagon officials were charged Friday with accepting more than $1 million in bribes and kickbacks and using their influence over defense contracts to extort cash, prostitutes and boxing tickets.
Robert Lee Neal Jr., 50, of Bowie, Md., was appointed by President Clinton in 1996 to serve as director of the Pentagon's office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (SADBU), which assures that minority-owned businesses get a share of available defense contracts.
According to a 52-page affidavit filed by Cynthia Stroot, a special agent with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Neal and his top assistant, Francis Delano Jones Jr., demanded more than $1 million in bribes from at least eight businesses seeking contracts with the government.
Prosecutors also said Friday that Neal and Jones, 40, of Fort Washington, Md., used their influence to extort bribes from several companies and that they laundered the money through a sham company called Northpointe Telecom and offshore accounts in Liechtenstein.
``Those who hold public offices at high levels of the Pentagon owe the highest duties of loyalty to the public, and to our men and women who have the distinction of serving in uniform,'' said Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which announced the arrests Friday.
``Robert Neal and Francis Jones abused their public offices for their own private enrichment.''
The people who paid the bribes are not identified in the affidavit, nor are their companies. One confidential witness said Neal and Jones demanded six to 10 payments ranging from $8,000 to $15,000 in exchange for contracts through a program called Mentor-Protege, which was run under SADBU.
Then, the two demanded a $100,000 cashier's check, to be paid through a third party.
In addition, the witness said he provided prostitutes for the men and paid for a 1997 trip to Las Vegas to see a heavyweight title bout between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
A second witness, a company president, said he paid the men cash and provided each with two prostitutes at a government conference in the U.S. Virgin Islands. That witness said his company received two contacts worth $1.4 million with the assistance of Neal and Jones.
The specific charges against Neal and Jones include soliciting and accepting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements, fraud, illegally structuring financial transactions, obstruction of justice witness tampering and conspiracy.
Both men are being held pending a detention hearing on Tuesday. Neal has requested a court-appointed lawyer. Jones' lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The two left their government jobs in June 2001 as part of the turnover in administration.
Pentagon spkesman Glenn Flood declined to comment on the charges.
In every Administration, these are the kinds of jobs that are usually reserved for black appointees. The fact that the bribes included "boxing tickets" runs in the same direction. And, odds are, the executives of the companies that paid the bribes are also black.
Clinton SHOULD have been inducted into the American Black Hall of Shame. Those are better known as federal penitentiaries.
Congressman Billybob
Former Pentagon officials arrested
October 19,2002
Two former high-ranking Pentagon officials who administered a preference program for contracting businesses owned by ethnic minorities and women have been charged with defrauding the government of more than one million dollars.Robert Lee Neal Jr, 50, and Francis Delano Jones Jr, 40, were charged yesterday in US District Court with extortion, bribery, money laundering, witness tampering and related offenses, said Paul McNulty, US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
Neal and Jones are accused of using their official position to enrich themselves to the tune of 1.1 million dollars through bribery, extortion and money laundering, McNulty said.
Neal was director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization from 1996-2001, and Jones was his executive assistant.
The office, with an annual budget of 28 million dollar, is charged with expanding opportunities for businesses institutions owned or controlled by ethnic minorities, disadvantaged individuals and women to win Pentagon contracts.
Robert L. Neal
A former Pentagon agency director and his top aide were charged yesterday with extortion and bribery for allegedly demanding payoffs, prostitutes and expensive watches in exchange for government contracts.
Neal, 50, was a political appointee of the Clinton administration, and he and Jones, 40, stepped down last year. Agents raided Neal's home in Bowie and Jones's home in Fort Washington yesterday morning, seeking evidence of illegal gains, such as a collection of luxury watches Neal kept, the court papers said.
Investigators said Neal and Jones netted more than $1.1 million during their tenure.
I would expect nothing less from the *Crinton administration...
Leading ultimately, of course, to the Big Kahuna hisself, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton!!!!!
FReegards...MUD
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