Posted on 03/06/2019 4:30:28 AM PST by csvset
Former state Del. Ron Villanueva plans to plead guilty later this month in connection with allegations he improperly helped two Virginia Beach companies secure special government contracts that had been set aside for women- and minority-owned small businesses.
It is unclear what charge or charges are involved in the proposed plea agreement. A plea hearing is scheduled March 19 in U.S. District Court.
Villanueva, a Virginia Beach resident who was voted out of office in 2017, and his attorney, Thomas Bondurant Jr., did not respond this morning to requests for comment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Salsbury declined to comment.
Villanueva was indicted Jan. 9 on four felonies, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, falsification of records and aiding with false written statements. He was subsequently arrested and released on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
On Jan. 17, Villanueva, who previously served as a Virginia Beach city councilman, pleaded not guilty to all charges. A jury trial was scheduled to start June 4.
The charges against Villanueva stem from his leadership roles at SEK Solutions, where he served as vice president and then president, and Karda Systems, where he served as a board member. SEK specialized in the sale of weapon- and industrial-storage products, and Karda sold tactical gear.
According to court documents in the new case and others, Villanueva worked with Khalil Naim, of SEK, and Samuel Caragan, of Karda, to misrepresent the firms as socially or economically disadvantaged businesses under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program.
The scheme started with SEK, which Naim’s wife, Edna, started in 2001 in Northern Virginia in part to receive set-aside contracts. The company relocated to Virginia Beach in 2005, at which point Villanueva got involved and Edna Naim became a figurehead, documents said.
In 2007, Villanueva and Naim determined they needed to do something because SEK would become ineligible for the special contracts in 2010, documents said. They encouraged Caragan to start Karda.
Documents said Villanueva and Naim largely controlled Karda’s contracting business while Caragan, the nominal president, ran the company’s storefront.
Using his House of Delegates letterhead in 2010, Villanueva sent a letter to the Small Business Administration in support of Karda's application to become eligible for the special contracts. Court documents said the letter was "false and misleading, in that Villanueva knew that he and (Naim) were the ones truly operating Karda."
Between 2005 and 2010, SEK was awarded more than $60 million in set-aside contracts, according to court documents. Between 2011 and 2014, Karda was awarded over $20 million.
Villanueva and his immediate family member received more than $1 million in income from SEK and Karda from 2007 through 2014, documents said.
Over the past year, Naim and Caragan have pleaded guilty to various crimes. Both are cooperating with investigators while they await sentencing.
Questions about Villanueva’s tenure with SEK and Karda have swirled since August 2017, when the Justice Department announced another larger firm would pay $16 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit. The government claimed ADS Inc. was secretly affiliated with five Virginia Beach businesses, including SEK and Karda.
Villanueva, a Republican, served as a member of the House of Delegates between January 2010 and January 2018.
This story broke live last night on Faux. Just amazing.
That's too bad for him. Republicans go to jail.
Bob Menendez...please pick up the courtesy phone
He was just “wetting his beak” on the contracts.
helped two Virginia Beach companies secure special government contracts that had been set aside for women- and minority-owned small businesses.
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Just identify as a woman or a minority. Problem solved.
I seriously believe this will be challenged in the courts soon. I am a subcontractor on government construction projects frequently and am often thwarted because of the minority content rules.
Boys are joining girls sports teams, girls are joining the Boy Scouts, Bruce Jenner thinks he’s a chick etc.
It’s time to get rid of the racist, discriminatory and oppressive minority rules.
I wonder how much fraud similar to this is happening ? I’m betting a bit more than what we’re seeing here.
No kidding. Look at Paul Manafort; absent a pardon from President Trump, he’s looking at the rest of his life in jail. Meanwhile, the Podestra brothers, former associates of Manafort in various overseas enterprises/activities, are walking around as free men. Odds they will ever be prosecuted? Slim to none. And did I mention that most of Manafort’s “crimes” are process offenses, or from the re-opening of tax cases DOJ originally declined to prosecute?
An example of how selective prosecution in such matters can be:
Thirty years ago, WTVT-TV (then the CBS affiliate in Tampa) came on the market. A local group was interested in purchasing the station, and they knew their chances of securing FCC approval would increase with “minority” ownership. So, they approached a prominent African-American lawyer; he paid $50K to join the group and instantly became its president. Naturally, the FCC gave its blessing for a “minority-led” group purchasing Channel 13, and they got the license. This was in the day when owning a TV station in a Top 20 market was tantamount to having a license to print money. Needless to say, the black attorney had no interest in running a TV station, and is partners were only interested in his skin color to secure FCC approval for the transaction. Is that really any different from what the group in Virginia Beach did?
BTW, the local group held onto the station for a few years, then sold it to a larger broadcasting company. WTVT changed hands again a few years later, and is now owned by Fox. Each of the principals in the Tampa ownership group made tens of millions of dollars when they sold the station, including the group’s “president.” As far as the FCC was concerned, everything was legal and above boards, despite the fact that the local group hired its president strictly on racial grounds, and he was nothing more than an affirmative action figurehead.
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