Ex-Pentagon Officials Sentenced in Fraud (Clinton appointees - mine)

AP ^ | December 12, 2003

[Leroy S. Mort]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Two former top Pentagon officials each were sentenced Friday to 24 1/3 years in prison for taking more than $1 million in bribes and accepting prostitutes from government contractors.

Robert Lee Neal Jr., 51, and Francis Delano Jones Jr., 51, also were ordered to jointly pay $1.75 million in restitution. The Maryland men were convicted in U.S. District Court in July of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

Neal was appointed by President Clinton in 1996 to serve as director of the Pentagon's office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (SADBU), which helps minority-owned businesses obtain defense contracts. Jones, his top assistant, joined the office in 1999.

Federal prosecutors said the men demanded bribes as high as $100,000 in certain cases and received $1.1 million in bribes and other illegal funds from businesses seeking government contracts.

The men victimized the minority contract firms whose interests they were supposed to represent, prosecutors said.

Neal was unrepentant.

``The government doesn't get it,'' he told federal judge James C. Cacheris. ``I have given up my family life for small businesses. ... That was my job, helping small businesses to gain access. That's what I was doing.''

One witness testified at the two men's trial that he provided the men with prostitutes at a government conference in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He said his company received two contracts worth $1.4 million with the help of Neal and Jones.

Another 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.

Prosecutors said Neal and Jones laundered much of the money they received through a sham company and offshore accounts. The government estimated the value of the tainted contracts was $20 million.

Defense attorneys argued Friday that this total was inflated. The government's estimated loss figure was used in determining sentence.

``The fact the government can argue for what they did, doesn't mean they should,'' said Jones' attorney, David Barger. ``I hope (Jones) lives long enough to get out of jail.''

Both Neal and Jones said they plan to appeal. Their lawyers have questioned the reliability of government witnesses, some of whom were drug users who received immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

[A juror]

Hmm...what other kind of information are you interested in? As for where they "came from", I'm not sure what you mean...they are just corrupt people who happened to work their way up the ranks (although it appears to me that Jones was Neal's crony and was hired as such). I don't know for sure, and it really wasn't addressed, but it seems that maybe one or two minor indiscretions snowballed into something a lot more sinister...they just became too self-confident and felt too invincible. And thankfully they were caught.

[Gritty]

Just curious about any further insights you had. It sounds as if they were simply a couple of opportunists who got caught.