Jun. 24—A San Antonio man has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for paying $100,000 in kickbacks to a contracting officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs to get an unfair edge on a pair of contracts.
Javor McCoy, 42, pleaded guilty in January to bribery and to a fraud charge for forging documents to get out of a court appearance in an unrelated case in Dallas.
At a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia gave him 25 months on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently. He also ordered McCoy to serve three years of federal supervision once he’s released.
McCoy’s lawyer, George Dombart of San Antonio, said McCoy wanted to gain an advantage for a transportation contract and initially believed he was hiring a legitimate consultant to help him. The contracting official, Glenn Dartone Johnson, told McCoy about bidding opportunities at VA facilities in San Antonio, and referred him to a person McCoy thought was a consultant, according to Dombart.
The consultant turned out to be Johnson himself.
Dombart noted there are many consultants who legally help companies write bids for government contracts.
MORE COVERAGE: Stacks of cash in gym locker: VA employee rigged $4M in contracts and got $100,000 in bribes
In the end, Dombart said, it would have been difficult to convince skeptical jurors that McCoy had acted innocently, so he took a plea deal.
“Yes, he was trying to get an advantage in contracting, but he didn’t intend to make a straight-out bribe,” Dombart said. “It’s debatable whether (McCoy) knew what was going on. There were red flags, and they might not pass the smell test, so that was a reason not to go to trial.”
In the bribery case, McCoy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official. McCoy owned Ready 2 Go Transport Central LLC (R2G Central), a company that provided transportation for veterans.
He admitted paying $100,000 in bribes to Johnson, 49, by placing the money in lockers at an AnyTime Fitness gym in San Antonio.
Johnson, who worked for the VA in San Antonio, pleaded guilty Dec. 20 to conspiracy to commit bribery, admitting he rigged the bidding process so two contracts would be awarded to McCoy’s company.
According to Johnson’s plea agreement, he was a contracting specialist with supervisory authority. His responsibilities included evaluating bids from contractors for VA services and awarding contracts.
McCoy was registered with the VA as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business that provided wheelchairs and ambulance services for veterans, the plea deal said.
In the summer of 2021, McCoy agreed to hire a consultant identified by Johnson to help McCoy win bids for VA transportation contracts, the plea agreement said.
“Although Johnson never explicitly stated to McCoy that he actually was the consultant, both Johnson and McCoy understood that Johnson would be involved in the consultant process,” the plea deal states. “In return for McCoy hiring the consultant, McCoy would receive private consultation regarding bids. Johnson, using his acquisition knowledge gained through his position, helped McCoy improve his chances of winning two competitive awards.”
On Aug. 13 and Aug. 23, 2021, McCoy paid Johnson the $100,000 in kickbacks, according to court documents.
Also on Aug. 23, 2021, McCoy submitted bids for the ambulance and wheelchair contracts to the VA office where Johnson worked, according to an indictment charging the pair.
Johnson then altered the official selection criteria for the bids to match what he had told McCoy. He overrode his subordinates’ recommendation to select bids other than R2G Central’s bids. Johnson also directed a subordinate to choose R2G Central as the winner of the wheelchair contract, according to court documents.
R2G Central got the contracts. One, for ambulance services, was worth about $1.4 million; the other, for wheelchair services, was worth about $2.6 million, the indictment said.
Johnson is scheduled for sentencing in September.
McCoy’s fraud charge stemmed from a civil case. McCoy was trying to avoid a civil court appearance in Dallas, and transmitted a criminal summons to an employee with the court in Dallas County showing he had to appear in court in San Antonio on the same day for his bribery case.
The summons contained a false and fraudulent electronic signature of a U.S. magistrate judge and was altered to display a fictitious appearance date, court records said.
(c)2024 the San Antonio Express-News
Visit the San Antonio Express-News at www.mysanantonio.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.