Former JBER contract specialist sentenced for bribery
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A Washington man who accepted nearly half a million dollars in bribes while stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison with three additional years of supervised release and must pay $47,000 in unlawful gains, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Court documents show that 33-year-old Brian Lowell Nash II agreed to accept over $460 million in bribery payments from Ryan Dalbec, a government contractor, in 2019. Dalbec owned a construction company — Best Choice Construction LLC — with his wife, Riahnna Nadem, both from Virginia.
The department said Dalbec and Nadem conspired with Nash to help the construction company win military contracts, including one that the department said was related to the “F-35 aircraft program” at Eielson Air Force Base, among others for service on JBER.
In all, the three used confidential bidding held by Nash for more than $8.25 million in contracts for the Department of Defense at Eielson and JBER.
At the time he was caught, Nash had reportedly accepted roughly $47,000 in bribery payments, much of which was laundered “through family members to conceal the nature and source of the funds.”
Nash pleaded guilty to conspiracy and acceptance of bribes by a public official. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline handed down the sentencing Wednesday.
In a release, Special Agent in Charge Antony Jung of the FBI Anchorage Field Office strengthened his stance on those who use bribery for financial gain at the expense of government agencies.
“In a severe violation of the public’s trust, the defendant chose to line his own pockets at the expense of taxpayers, and undermined the government’s competitive contracting practices,” Jung said. “The FBI will continue to investigate and disrupt such schemes and hold accountable those who seek to use taxpayer dollars for private gain.”
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