Kickbacks Lead to 87 Months

One would think kickbacks were a sad thing of the past, but the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently sentenced a contracting executive to 87 months in prison and to pay more than $9.4 million in restitution in U.S. v. Kahn, D.D.C., No. 1:11-cr-00276, sentencing 10/18/12). The executive pled guilty to one count of bribery of a public official and one count of paying unlawful kickbacks, admitting that he stole over $9 million by submitting invoices to the Army Corps for services that were not performed. The overall scheme was apparently much larger; involving more than $30 million in bribes and kickbacks, including steered contracts. Two other conspirators also received prison terms, and were ordered to almost $11 million in restitution, and the investigation is still ongoing (thus far 12 people have pled guilty and the government has seized over $7 million from them). It's a sad reminder that the federal government will not tolerate such illegal activities (nor certainly should it), and of the large and sharpe teeth available to the federal government to deal with potential government contracting lawbreakers.