A former contracting officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development pled guilty to bribery of a public official, alongside three former contracting executives. Alexander Sikov / Getty Images
Former USAID official, three contractors plead guilty in $550M bribery scheme
Their decades-long conspiracy involved rigged contracts, NBA tickets, mortgage payments, securities fraud and cash.
Three contractors, a former government contracting officer, and two companies have admitted to a decades-long bribery scheme involving contracts worth over $550 million.
A Thursday Justice Department announcement lists the contractors involved as Walter Barnes, owner of PM Consulting Group, which did business as Vistant; Darryl Britt, owner of Apprio; and Paul Young, president of a subcontractor to Apprio and Vistant.
They pled guilty to federal conspiracy to commit bribery charges. Roderick Watson, formerly a contracting officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, pled guilty to bribery of a public official.
Apprio and Vistant admitted to criminal liability and entered into three-year deferred prosecution agreements. The companies must continue to cooperate with Justice implement compliance and ethics programs, and make progress reports to the department.
Watson faces the stiffest penalty – up to 15 years in prison. His sentencing is set for Oct. 6.
Barnes, Britt and Young face maximum sentences of five years each. Britt’s sentencing is set for July 28, Young’s is scheduled for Sept. 3 and Barnes will be sentenced Oct. 14.
The bribery scheme began in 2013, when Watson agreed to use his contacting officer position in exchange for bribes to influence contract awards to Apprio. Vistant was a subcontractor to Apprio, according to Justice.
The contracts were 8(a) set-aside awards and when Apprio graduated from the program, the two companies switched positions with Vistant becoming the 8(a) prime and Apprio the sub.
Vistant won contracts influenced by Watson from 2018-to-2022. During this time, Britt and Barnes paid bribes to Watson. Often the payments were concealed by passing them through Young, a subcontractor to the two companies.
Justice said the bribes consisted of cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cell phones, and jobs for relatives.
The department also alleges that Watson and Barnes defrauded a licensed Small Business Investment Company to enter into a credit agreement. Ahead of entering into the agreement, Watson vouched for Barnes and Vistant about their performance as a contractor.
With the credit agreement in place, Barnes had Vistant issue stock warrants that would make the SBIC a 40% owner of Vistant if exercised. The agreement included a $14 million loan to Vistant, which allowed Barnes to pay himself a $10 million dividend.
Britt and Apprio convinced a private equity firm to purchase a 20% stake in his company through an investment pool. The PE firm paid $4 million for the stake and gave Vistant a $4 million loan, secured by shares of Apprio stock.
Justice says that Britt, Barnes and Watson committed fraud when they made “false material representations” while negotiating these financial agreements.
Washington Technology has written about both Vistant and Apprio over the years.
When Vistant known PM Consulting, the company ranked No. 11 on the 2020 Washington Technology Fast 50.
Barnes also wrote several guest columns for Washington Technology. Topics included tips on working with subcontractors, and COVID 19’s impact on the market. His last column was titled: “All the things I wish I knew when I started my business.”
In October 2022, Barnes also appeared as a guest on our podcast that was known as Project 38 at the time.
Most of our coverage of Apprio featured contract award announcements and personnel moves.