Posted on 05/17/2009 11:53:33 AM PDT by jazusamo
Federal agents who raided a suburban Johnstown defense contractor and the homes of its two owners are attempting to determine whether the company inflated its payroll in order to run up higher expenses in federal contracts.
~snip!
He has received an estimated $60,000 in campaign contributions from the Kucheras since 2002, placing them among the top 20 donors to Mr. Murtha's campaign and leadership PAC. Mr. Murtha, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not been named as a suspect in the Kuchera investigation or another ongoing probe into the now-defunct PMA Group, a defense lobbying firm whose staff and clients were heavy contributors to his campaigns.
~snip~
One summary of government contracts examined by the Post-Gazette shows Kuchera Defense Systems with a $2.29 million Navy research and development contract. It also indicates that the company has 500 employees.
"They never had more than 225 employees there," Mr. Kohan said.
~snip~
Mr. Murtha's interest in the firm is underscored in an April 28, 2006, e-mail sent by Karl Harris, director of the Electro Optics Lab of Pennsylvania State University. The lab has been a major project of Mr. Murtha, whose portrait once hung in the lobby of its building in Armstrong County.
"I have been told to help Bill Kuchera for nearly two years," Mr. Harris wrote to another EOC employee three years ago. "Mark Critz [a Murtha district aide] may not have been aware of that -- it came directly from Mr. Murtha ... ."
In an interview last week, Mr. Harris said the e-mail was "in error" and that he did not receive direct requests from Mr. Murtha to help Kuchera.
Two years earlier, Mr. Harris had advised a Navy project manager to reconfigure a federal money line intended for research on electric crystals to include $500,000 to support...
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Johnstown is nothing but a pig pen for government pork. Corruption and waste everywhere.
Millions???? Easily billions. I worked on a couple contracts of Murtha's pork that were $100 million that went mostly to Johnstown..
I’m sure it has been billions. Hopefully the feds will nail Murtha on something with this investigation.
Hell,
I’d like everything and everyone associated with Murtga indicted, And him? maybe water boarded 184 times. Since I hold him to be just that much more an enemy than the guy that got it 183 times.
Like he said, if he’s corrupt he’s only doing it for his district.
Unbelievable!
yeah, why do yah rob banks?
Cause that’s where the money is.
That’s a very good video, Smooth, it tells it like it is.
I read an article in the Trib-Dem this morning by Bill Jones, a retired senior writer for them that supported Murtha and the airport. It was such BS I wouldn’t post a thread on it, his paper is circling the wagons for him, it was published Friday or Saturday,
Murtha needs to be in jail, not in Congress. The damage he has done to our deficit trying to keep this town alive and the pockets of his friends and relatives lined with cash is unbelievable. All by himself, Murtha has accounted for several billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
I saw that too, Jaz. Bill Jones has got his head up Jack Murtha’s you know what. Unbelivable.
Really? Millions...sure.....Billions??? Horse feathers!
Murtha is a worthless POS and, even worse, a disgrace to the Corps.
However, ALL members of Congress get contributions, often suspicious, and steer as much federal waste (that WILL go somewhere) to their home districts. Quite frankly, that is the only time when they are truly doing what they were elected for. Have you ever taken a look at Kuchera's battle tank renovation and storage operation?
While I have never worked for Kuchera Defense, I have worked on other Murtha-generated contracts, both with a direct effect on 03-04 war operations in Iraq.
Better that than passing govt health care, hate crime laws, gun control, TARP, cap & trade, etc, etc, etc....
Tell me why there is a $50 million National Drug Intelligence Center located in Johnstown???? In the 2010 budget alone there is another $44 million budgeted for this. There has probably been a half a billion dumped into Johnstown on the NDIC alone. Or how about the $200 million spent on the Murtha Memorial Airport. Oh yeah, that airport has three commercial flights scheduled per day! There is no reason anyone flies to Johnstown except to support Murtha's pork. These are just a couple of examples. Also, look at all the money Murtha has provided defense contractor DRS. Murtha puts in multi-million dollar sole source awards in the budget every year for this company. Murtha by himself turned DRS from a tiny company into a major defense contractor. Oh yeah, a few of Murtha relatives such as a brother inlaw happened to have benefited hugely on these awards. If you think Billions is horse feathers, you have no idea how deep this is.
"I have been told to help Bill Kuchera for nearly two years," Mr. Harris wrote to another EOC employee three years ago. "Mark Critz [a Murtha district aide] may not have been aware of that -- it came directly from Mr. Murtha ... ."
In an interview last week, Mr. Harris said the e-mail was "in error" and that he did not receive direct requests from Mr. Murtha to help Kuchera.
I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to say Murtha has gotten billions in earmarks.
He’s been a Congressman for over 35 years and one of the most corrupt, ABSCAM is a testament to that.
With the amounts he has gotten just in the last ten years could easily put him in the billion category.
I’m soing to have to fly in to this taj mahal of airports.
Should be a lot of ramp boys with nothing to do but fill my plane with 100LL.
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