Two Florida defense industry veterans were arrested on May 20 on federal charges alleging they bribed a U.S. Army employee and defrauded the government to secure military technology contracts at a Pacific innovation hub in Hawaii.
Leonard Pick, 62, of Palm Beach Shores, and Brian Kent, 59, of Tampa, allegedly orchestrated a bribery and major fraud conspiracy that corrupted the competitive procurement process for a Department of War technology innovation lab in the Pacific, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The indictment, filed in the District of Hawaii on May 14 and unsealed Wednesday, alleges the two men conspired from January 2021 to October 2022 to funnel roughly $1.25 million in payments over five years to a U.S. Army employee, artificially inflating government contracting costs to disguise the bribes. …