Firm guilty in bribe scheme
A Virginia-based software engineering firm has pleaded guilty to federal charges in a longrunning bribery and fraud scheme that involved hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts at Joint Base San Antonio-randolph.
William Dunn, the majority owner and president of Quantadyn Corp., entered the plea on behalf of his company to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
A criminal trial for three others involved is set for early next year. They were indicted in January and face conspiracy and fraud charges in a contract scheme that allegedly ran from 2006 to 2018.
One of them, San Antonio resident Keith Alan Seguin, a civilian employee of the 502nd Trainer Development Squadron at the air base, allegedly used his position to improperly steer contracts to Quantadyn for aircraft and close-air-support
training simulators. He was allegedly paid $2.3 million in bribes for his role.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered the company to forfeit $22.8 million in cash and $7 million in assets.
In addition, Quantadyn has agreed to pay a $6.3 million fine and almost $38 million in restitution to resolve civil matters related to the bribery scheme. Separately, Dunn will pay $500,000 to resolve his personal civil liabilities. Biery also put Quantadyn on probation for five years.
The other two charged in the case are David Bolduc Jr. of Virginia, one of Quantadyn's owners, and Rubens Fiuza Lima, a Georgia
resident who allegedly facilitated the payoff scheme by acting as a middle man funneling the bribes to Seguin. The indictment also said a portion of the bribe money paid to Seguin was laundered through Fiuza Lima's business, Impex Inc., for a 10 percent fee.
Trial for all three is set for Feb. 1 before Biery. Some of the charges carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison.
Seguin did not return a phone call Wednesday.
The case was investigated by multiple federal and military agencies.
“I am proud that our team and our law-enforcement partners were able to obtain justice for the American taxpayer in this case,” U.S. Attorney John Bash said in a news release. “We will not tolerate fraud against important federal programs.”
Air Force Col. Todd Vician, a spokesman for the Air Education and Training Command, said the squadron provides essential devices for flying, fighter, air mobility, technical and other training missions in numerous career fields, from pilots and navigators to weapons and cargo loaders, for AETC units and others, including some foreign nations.
The squadron designs the training devices, fabricating parts and building, installing, and often maintaining them. Its work includes the B-1B Armament Systems Trainer, the C-17 Cargo Load Trainer, C-130 and HH-60 Aeromedical Evacuation Trainers, Advanced Air National Guard
Joint Terminal Attack Controller Training System and the Multi-mission Crew Trainer to support the Air National Guard.
The squadron is spread out among four buildings for manufacturing, warehousing, industrial and administrative functions at Randolph.
“When government contractors pay bribes to military contracting officials to obtain contracts, they prevent both our military and the American taxpayers from receiving products that are procured fairly and objectively and at a reasonable price,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark said in the release.