Murtha’s re-election is the reason I have no faith in America’s future.

MaiDee on July 15, 2009 at 11:25 AM

yep

Doylestown man pleads guilty to kickback scheme

By: Jenna Portnoy
Bucks County Courier Times

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The former chief executive of a Doylestown defense contractor with ties to U.S. Rep. John Murtha pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a kickback scheme and defrauding the Air Force, and promised to cooperate in an ongoing criminal investigation.

Federal prosecutors said Richard S. Ianieri solicited kickbacks from a subcontractor in Pennsylvania while he headed Coherent Systems International Corp. Ianieri also was charged with filing false purchase orders related to an Air Force contract in Florida.

Ianieri, of Doylestown, pleaded guilty to both charges during a hearing in Pensacola, Fla., and is scheduled to be sentenced in September. He could face up to 15 years in prison.

A nine-page plea agreement that Ianieri signed says the government will urge a lighter prison sentence if he provides substantial assistance “in the investigation or prosecution of other persons who have committed offenses.”

Following Ianieri’s plea, Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said it is not the Democratic congressman’s job to oversee companies and that “if they broke the law, then they should be held accountable for their actions.”

Murtha has directed hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts over the years to Coherent and other defense contractors through a process called earmarking.

“This case isn’t about earmarks,” said Mazonkey. “It’s about individuals within the defense industry and the Defense Department accused of defrauding the government.”

Executives at Coherent and two other companies named in court papers in Ianieri’s Florida case have donated over $95,000 to Murtha’s re-election campaigns and his political action committee since 2002, according to Federal Election Commission records. One of the companies is Kuchera Industries Inc. of Windber, about 10 miles from Murtha’s political home base of Johnstown.

A federal bill of information filed in Pittsburgh states that Ianieri was given two kickbacks totaling nearly $200,000 from a company identified only as “K” for “improperly obtaining and rewarding favorable treatment” regarding a defense subcontract.

In an April 2006 news release, Murtha announced that Coherent and Kuchera Defense Systems were working “virtually as one company” on 14 contracts worth $30 million to develop high-tech military gear.

Kuchera’s offices were raided by federal agents in January. Kuchera built high-tech military components that Coherent designed.

Ianieri and the Kucheras have also donated to Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy, who represents Bucks County as well as parts of Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia. This year, Murphy secured a $2.4 million earmark for Coherent, which was acquired by Argon ST two years ago.

Murphy plans to donate to local charities $21,400 in campaign cash from Ianieri, his wife, a Coherent employee and the employee’s wife as well as Kuchera’s principals – just as he did nearly $28,000 from The PMA Group, a defunct lobbying group under investigation for arranging illegal political contributions.

On March 6, 2008, four members of the Kuchera family and Ianieri each gave Murphy $2,300, the maximum allowed by campaign finance rules. Ianieri also gave Murphy $3,000 in the two prior years for a total of $5,300.

Coherent opened an office on South Main Street in Doylestown in January 2007, according to the occupancy permit – the same month Murphy took office.

Murphy has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied any improper connection between campaign donations and earmarks.

The Florida charges concern a Coherent contract given through the Air Force Research Laboratory to deliver four Ground Mobile Gateway Systems, which are designed to help soldiers and pilots trace U.S. units and cut down on friendly fire.

The United States paid Coherent $5.9 million to build the systems. According to federal court papers, Coherent subsequently paid about $1.8 million to subcontractors for the delivery of software and materials that were not part of the contract.

Ianieri was charged with presenting purchase orders to the Air Force that he knew were “false, fictitious and fraudulent,” court records state.

Murtha also has ties to lobbyists for some of the companies under scrutiny. His brother worked from 2004 to 2006 for KSA Consulting, of Rockville, Md., which lobbied for Coherent. Another lobbying firm, PMA Group, represented two of the companies involved in the Florida investigation.

Founded by a lobbyist who has long been close to Murtha, PMA and its defense contractor clients have donated over $2 million to Murtha’s re-election campaigns and to his political action committee over the years.

Ianieri’s attorney, W. Thomas Dillard, of Knoxville, Tenn., declined to comment after the hearing. He would not address questions regarding whether Murtha had sponsored an $8.2 million earmark that included the money for Coherent.

Dillard also refused to say whether his client could implicate Murtha or other members of Congress in allegedly illegal conduct.

Murtha is a crook, just like he was in ABSCAM in 1981.

Murphy is my congresscritter and Ianieri lives in my town. I am convinced that both of Murphy’s campaigns have been financed largely by Murtha’s corrupt machine. Murphy quietly donated all of his contributions from Ianieri to charioty, but he got an earmark directly for Ianieri’s firm in last year’s defense appropriations bill. If this investigation continues, both of these corrupt bastards may go down in flames.

This loud, venal scumbag is not going to ever do the nation’s business as long as he is doing his own business, his brother’s business, his nephew’s business, his friends’ business as well as buying votes with $200,000,000 in government funds for the tiny airport in his district.

PUT HIM IN JAIL FOR YEARS AND YEARS. End this “ruling class” being under a different (weaker) standard BS.

CC

I suspect that Murtha may decide to retire first, though, especially if anyone else begins singing.

Retire to a federal prison.

infidel4life on July 15, 2009 at 12:42 PM

Or the FBI is ignoring Murtha because the real target of Obama’s DOJ is the Pentagon procurement system; to spotlight the need for ‘reform’, and to justify Obama getting ‘his people’ put in charge of procurement.

Time will tell.

If the FBI was for real, Murtha would have been gone a long time ago. More theater.

JiangxiDad on July 15, 2009 at 11:56 AM

Exactly, the FBI are show boaters. They’re lefties like the CIA. All corrupt. Been that way since LBJ had J Edgar kill JFK and J Edgar was modeling evening dresses.

I will celebrate the day when this miserable, angry, corrupt prick is dragged out of his office in handcuffs.

UltimateBob on July 15, 2009 at 11:05 AM

It’d be sweet beyond compare if Feinstein, Leahy, Kennedy, Durbin, Reid, Dodd and, uh, well, for starters, them with Murtha. That’d go a long way to improving our Congress.

The people who keep sending him back to Congress time after time. Industry – coal, steel, railroads – left his district long ago. But rather than sell up and move on, his constituents are happy to suck off the taxpayer teat in cushy jobs with the new #1 industry there: government.