A federal employee who for almost eight years accepted cash bribes and other items from people in exchange for jobs as government subcontractors was sentenced today to 75 months in federal prison.
Gary Alexander, 50, a former branch head at SPAWAR -- Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command -- was also ordered to forfeit $332,072 and was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $171,288.
Alexander pleaded guilty last year to defrauding the U.S. Navy in connection with the awarding of several defense subcontracts, federal prosecutors said. Alexander also pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns.
According to court records, Alexander and his wife, 47-year-old Kelly Alexander, worked at SPAWAR and accepted the bribes in return for employment as government subcontractors.
Gary Alexander used his influence at SPAWAR to ensure that co-defendants Elizabeth Ramos and her husband, Louis Williams -- owners of Technical Logistics Corp. of National City -- received $4.8 million in military subcontracts, according to court records.
In return, Gary Alexander demanded and received cash bribes equaling a percentage of Ramos' salary, prosecutors said.
Similarly, Gary Alexander demanded and received cash bribes from Pamela Banks, owner of Advance Technical Solutions, in return for $400,000 in subcontracts awarded to her company, prosecutors said.
Banks also pleaded guilty to paying bribes to the Alexanders.
From 1999 through 2008, when they were arrested, the Alexanders were paid more than $400,000 in cash bribes and given items such as a $5,600 Rolex watch, expensive dinners and vacations, prosecutors said.
Court records revealed that the subcontracts were arranged through Jackie Godwin, a former Vice President of Kratos Defense Security Solutions, a nationwide defense prior contractor based in San Diego.
Godwin pleaded guilty and admitted hiring the co-conspirators as requested by Alexander, prosecutors said.
In addition to the bribery scheme, plea agreements revealed that Gary Alexander directed both Ramos and Godwin to provide government-funded jobs to his mistress, Sinthia Nares, who pleaded guilty to lying to government
investigators.
Gary Alexander also directed Godwin and Ramos to buy and charge to the government $14,000 in high-tech audio-visual equipment, which were ultimately seized from the homes of Alexander, Godwin and Nares, according to prosecutors.
Banks was sentenced a year ago to 24 months in federal prison, but was released recently in recognition of her cooperation in the investigation, prosecutors said.
In February, Kelly Alexander was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $36,676 in restitution based on her guilty plea to wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
Last week, Godwin, 68, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $137,763 in restitution based on his guilty plea to participating in a fraudulent scheme, prosecutors said.
Nares, 44, pleaded guilty to making a false statement and was sentenced to three months in a halfway house.
Ramos, 43, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $123,448 in restitution. Her husband, 44-year-old Louis Williams, was sentenced to a year and one day in federal custody.
