Ex-defense contractor to plead in kickback scheme

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A former defense-contracting executive from Pennsylvania intends to plead guilty to a kickback scheme after his case is transferred to a federal court in northern Florida.

Court documents filed late Tuesday show Richard S. Ianieri has agreed to plead guilty after federal prosecutors transfer his case from Pittsburgh to Pensacola, Fla., though neither U.S. attorney’s office returned calls Wednesday to explain the move.

Prosecutors in Pittsburgh charged Ianieri, of Doylestown, on Monday with taking $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor while he headed Coherent Systems International Corp., a defense contractor with ties to U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.

Two Florida defense-industry workers charged in a separate indictment are scheduled for trial in federal court in Pensacola beginning July 27. A third pleaded guilty in Pensacola on Wednesday. They were accused of falsifying records or statements to a grand jury or with having a conflict of interest relating to government oversight of defense contracts — including $5.9 million worth of work by Ianieri’s former firm.

Ianieri and his attorney, W. Thomas Dillard, of Knoxville, Tenn., did not immediately return messages left by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

It is not clear if Ianieri is cooperating with federal investigators in their case against the Florida defendants. Coherent is mentioned in the 29-page Florida indictment and Ianieri — the company’s former president and chief executive officer — is identified by his initials and title, but the company and its officials are not charged with crimes in the Florida case.

Murtha’s office declined to comment on both cases.

The congressman has obtained millions in earmarks for Coherent and Kuchera Defense Industries, a Windber, Pa., firm whose offices were raided by federal agents in January. Kuchera built high-tech military components that Coherent designed. In early 2006, Murtha touted work the firms did on defense contracts worth $30 million as revitalizing the sagging economy near his hometown of Johnstown.

Murtha and two lobbying firms he’s been linked to are not named or implicated in either Ianieri’s case or the Florida indictment.

The Florida indictment relates to devices known as Air Force Ground Mobile Gateway Systems, which are designed to help soldiers and pilots track U.S. units and to cut down on friendly fire.

Murtha was responsible for a $1.4 million earmark for the systems in a defense spending bill passed in September 2006. Roll Call first reported in June that the project got $8.1 million more in a tsunami relief bill passed in May 2005, when Murtha was the ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, but no lawmaker has taken credit for that earmark.

The Florida charges allege that an Air Force program manager who oversaw the ground mobile systems also had interests in some firms that did subcontracting work, and that Coherent paid one subcontractor $200,000 for components of the system that were never delivered. Companies controlled by the Air Force manager and two other Florida co-defendants, who also headed the subcontracting firm, each allegedly got $60,000 of that money.

Murtha’s ties to lobbyists for many of the companies under scrutiny are well-documented. His brother worked from 2004 to 2006 for KSA Consulting, of Rockville, Md., which lobbied for Coherent. Another lobbying firm, PMA Group, represented some of the companies involved in the Florida investigation.

PMA Group folded in March after it was raided by the FBI in an ongoing investigation into political contributions. Murtha has received nearly $2.4 million in contributions from PMA lobbyists and clients since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political money.