Dive Brief:
- A federal judge in Washington, DC, has sentenced DC-area architect Mark Farmer to 33 months in prison for his role in a bribery scheme involving the former chief of a Cleveland Veterans Administration hospital. Farmer must also pay a fine of $12,500 and forfeit $70,801.64, the amount of the bribes, according to Cleveland.com.
- Prosecutors alleged that Farmer, who was convicted in August of 14 felonies related to the bribery charges, made payments to former VA head William Montague from 2010 to 2013 in exchange for inside, confidential information that would give his former employer, CannonDesign, an advantage over other firms when bidding on VA projects.
- According to Cleveland.com, Montague, who has been convicted of more than 60 felony charges and awaits sentencing, accepted money from several contractors during his tenure at the VA. Under a plea agreement, he is asking the court for a sentence of approximately four and a half years.
Dive Insight:
Farmer, who apologized to the court and accepted responsibility, could have seen a sentence of more than 20 years in prison but made a deal with prosecutors that limited a potential sentence to six years.
Montague was not employed at the VA during the period the alleged crimes took place, but he used his contacts at the agency to secure information, according to Cleveland.com. Prosecutors said this privileged information made CannonDesign’s successful bid to design a VA hospital possible.
The VA recently announced that it had concluded its investigation into another one of its controversies, the over-budget, delayed hospital in Aurora, CO. The agency’s Administrative Investigative Board said it found no basis for any additional disciplinary or punitive actions against current employees and that the three individuals they considered to be at the heart of the hospital’s problems were no longer with the VA. The Aurora hospital has incurred $1 billion in cost overruns and is more than four years behind schedule.
