Department of Defense raids Concurrent Technologies

Reasons federal agents examined Johnstown-area defense contractor unclear

The Department of Defense raided a Johnstown-area defense contractor Tuesday, but no one was saying why.

Federal agents swept into Concurrent Technologies Corp., a nonprofit originally established by the late U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, that has received large Defense Department research contracts for the Air Force and Navy.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh confirmed the raids but would not comment further.

The agents who conducted the searches were from Defense Criminal Investigative Services, which handles fraud cases, along with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS.

Agents searched offices at CTC’s Systems Technology building on CTC Drive and the company’s Environmental Technology facility on Industrial Park Road.

Federal prosecutors would not discuss the nature of the raids other than to say they are part of an “ongoing investigation.”

Company

spokeswoman Mary Bevan said employees were greeted by agents when they came to work and were told to go home. The center, which has facilities in 12 states, has 568 employees in Johnstown.

“We don’t know what they are looking for,” Ms. Bevan said of the agents, who spent much of the day at the company.

She said none of CTC’s other facilities across the country was raided.

While the focus of the investigation is unclear, the news was another blow for Johnstown and Mr. Murtha’s legacy.

Mr. Murtha, who died in 2010, set up CTC in the 1980s as a nonprofit research center for metalworking and helped guide some $1 billion in defense earmarks to the enterprise over the years.

At the time of his death, the FBI was examining Mr. Murtha’s connections to another firm, Kuchera Defense Systems, to which he directed millions in congressional earmarks as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Prosecutors said Kuchera Defense paid $200,000 in kickbacks to Richard Ianieri, who ran Coherent Systems International.

Mr. Ianieri steered $650,000 worth of government work to Kuchera Defense from an $8.2 million earmark in return for the kickback.

Prosecutors have said that Mr. Ianieri received the contract after hiring a lobbying firm that employed Mr. Murtha’s brother, Kit.

William and Ronald Kuchera, the two brothers who co-owned Kuchera Defense, pleaded guilty in April to defrauding the government and conspiring to avoid paying taxes. They will be sentenced Oct. 7.

Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1510.