Published: July 08, 2009 11:43 pm      

Ex-defense contractor intends to plead guilty

PITTSBURGH — 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 and others unsealed Wednesday show Richard S. Ianieri has agreed to plead guilty after federal prosecutors transfer his case from Pittsburgh to Pensacola, Fla., where federal prosecutors accused him separately of defrauding the Air Force.

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-Johnstown.

Two Florida defense industry workers charged in a separate Pensacola indictment are scheduled for trial in federal court beginning July 27. A third pleaded guilty 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.

In a federal information unsealed Wednesday, Ianieri was accused of fraud for his role in the Florida case.

The filing of an information typically indicates that a defendant plans to plead guilty.

Murtha’s office declined to comment on both cases.

The congressman has obtained millions in earmarks for Coherent and Kuchera Defense Industries, a Windber company 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 helping to revitalize the region’s sagging economy.

Murtha and two lobbying firms he has been linked to are not named or implicated in either case.

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; Murtha was the ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense at the time, but no lawmaker has taken credit for the 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 subcontractors for components of the system that were never delivered or not related to the Air Force contract. Companies controlled by the Air Force manager and the two other Florida co-defendants, who also headed the subcontracting firm, each allegedly got some of the 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.