Ex-federal employee receives prison sentence of 2.5 years
Staunton man accepted over $400K in bribes
NORFOLK — A former federal employee was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison last week for accepting more than $400,000 in bribes and kickbacks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Charles W. Jones, 60, of Staunton, was an employee with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and took cash and checks in return for steering government contracts to particular companies, the prosecutor’s office said.
Jones pleaded guilty in June 2022 to one count of “accepting a bribe” as a public official.
In sentencing Wednesday in Norfolk federal court, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen also ordered Jones to forfeit $411,192 to the government. About $95,000 already has been seized, so he has about $316,000 left to pay.
As a GSA employee, Jones had oversight responsibility for construction and renovation projects on federal buildings in Norfolk, Richmond, Alexandria and elsewhere, court paperwork said.
That included a large project at U.S. District Court in Richmond as well as the Norfolk federal courthouse and a Customs House in Norfolk operated by Customs and Border Protection.
Court documents said Jones conspired with Daniel L. Crowe to get kickbacks and bribes — with Jones advising GSA prime contractors to use Crowe’s company for subcontracts. It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of work Crowe’s company performed.
Court documents say General Services Administration contractors paid Crowe’s companies some $4.6 million for contracting work between 2016-19. That included about $2.7 million for work at U.S. District Court in Richmond.
Before the “illegal relationship with Jones,” court documents said, Crowe’s firm “had never submitted bids” to the government for such work.
Between 2015-19, court documents say, Crowe paid Jones $411,000 in illegal bribes and kickbacks. Crowe paid Jones by way of “consulting” companies that Jones created for the purpose of accepting the money, the documents said.
Court documents said the men would meet at a McDonald’s, where Jones would assist Crowe in coming up with cost estimates to ensure he got the work. The scheme, court documents said, also included Jones creating fake invoices to Crowe for work that was never performed.
Later in 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, Jones received bribes from Jennifer Strickland, the president of a Virginia Beach construction company, in exchange for a $1.4 million “flood demolition and renovation” contract at the Richmond federal courthouse.
That company, SDC Contracting LLC, qualified for government set-asides because it was a womanowned business, court documents said. Strickland and Jones met at a gas station in New Kent and a coffee shop in Virginia Beach where Strickland made the two payments totaling $43,500.
It wasn’t clear from the court records how the scheme was uncovered, though the conspiracy was primarily investigated by the FBI.
“Jones was a government official who had been placed in a position of trust to guard against corruption,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Heck toldAllen in a sentencing paper.
Though others share in the blame, Heck said Jones “had a responsibility to protect the government” but instead “utilized his position to enrich himself.”
Jeffrey A. Swartz, Jones’ attorney, delved deeply into his past in sentencing documents filed with the court.
Swartz told of how Jones’ mother died in a house fire when he was young and how, as a young Navy sailor, he helped recovery efforts after the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon. Swartz also spoke of how shocked Jones’ family and friends were to hear about the crime.
“Mr. Jones’ involvement in this scheme was not motivated by a desire to live a lavish or extravagant lifestyle,” Swartz wrote, asking for a split sentence of incarceration and probation. “Rather, it was in large part the pressure he put on himself to provide for his family.”
Allen gave him 2 ½ years to serve.
Crowe, meantime, was sentenced last year to eight months in federal prison for “paying a gratuity to a public official,” and was ordered to forfeit $252,700.
Strickland was sentenced last year to three years of probation — including 18 months of home confinement — and ordered to forfeit $43,500. She was also fined another $20,000.