Contractor Sentenced In Army Corruption Scheme In Hawaii
John Winslett bribed Army officials with cash, cars and guns to win lucrative construction contracts in Hawaii, Justice Department said.
A former government contractor was sentenced to 70 months in prison Friday for a corruption scheme in which he paid bribes to secure Army contracts in Hawaii while also receiving kickbacks, the Justice Department said.
John Winslett, 66, of Bristol, Rhode Island,聽pleaded guilty to charges in September 2019.
In court, Winslett admitted that from 2011 to 2018 he paid $100,000 worth of bribes to two Army contracting officials at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu.聽In return, the officials steered at least $19 million in federal contracts to Winslett’s employer, construction management firm REK Associates in Virginia.
The bribes included a 2017 Jeep Rubicon, an antique 1969 Ford Galaxie, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, diamond earrings worth more than $2,000 and a variety of guns, .
A press release from the U.S. Attorney General’s Hawaii District office noted that FBI agents, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division and Defense Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case.
Winslett also admitted that he accepted $723,333.33 in kickbacks from a local subcontractor to work on the projects.聽Military spending has been described as one of the legs of the Hawaii economy’s “three legged stool,” with billions of dollars worth of lucrative contracts at bases across Oahu.
During the 2018 fiscal year, Pentagon spending pumped $7.2 billion into Hawaii鈥檚 economy through contracting, making up about 7.7% of the state鈥檚 GDP.聽That put Hawaii as second in the United States for the highest defense spending as a share of state GDP, .
As the pandemic has cut into tourism, Pentagon spending has played an increasingly prominent role in the state’s troubled economy.
