Miserendino was a government contractor at MSC, an entity of the U.S. Department of the Navy that provides support and specialized services to the Navy and other U.S. military forces. According to the plea agreement, Miserendino and Joseph P. Allen, the owner of a government contracting company, conspired to use Miserendino’s position at MSC to enrich themselves through bribery.

Specifically, beginning in or around 1999, Miserendino used his position and influence at MSC to help Allen and his company obtain and expand a commission agreement with a telecommunications company that sold maritime satellite services to MSC. With that agreement in place, for more than a decade, Miserendino used his influence at MSC to take official acts to benefit the telecommunications company, which, through the commission agreement, also benefited Allen and his company.

Unknown to MSC or the telecommunications company, Allen then paid half of the commission payments from the telecommunications company to Miserendino as bribes. In total, between approximately 1999 and approximately 2014, Allen received more than $6 million from the telecommunications company, and in turn paid more than $2.8 million to Miserendino in bribes.

For his role in the scheme, Allen, 57, formerly of Panama City, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in April 2017, and was sentenced on July 28, 2017, to five years in prison by U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen, in Norfolk.

The FBI, DCIS, and NCIS are investigating the case. Trial Attorneys Sean Mulryne and Molly Gaston of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Haynie for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

The contract for worldwide aviation services — supporting the work of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Office of Aviation — was initially awarded in September 2016. It calls for providing aviation support for the eradication and interdiction of illicit drugs along with personnel training, reconnaissance, personnel recovery, medical evacuation, security and equipment and ferrying of aircraft.

The Government Accountability Office denied DynCorp’s protest of the contract award in December 2016. DynCorp immediately took its case to the Court of Federal Claims, saying AAR purposefully poached DynCorp employees with previous experience on the contract. DynCorp had held the contract for more than two decades.

AAR, DynCorp alleged, then used those ex-DynCorp employees to obtain proprietary information to compete for, and ultimately win, the recompete of WASS in September 2016.

“While we are disappointed by the court’s decision based upon the facts and merits of the case, we are honored to have served the INL Air Wing program for more than 25 years, having a distinguished record of flight safety and operational excellence,” DynCorp said in a statement.

Don Wetekam, chairman of AAR Airlift, said in a statement that his team “is excited to begin work on this contract and deliver world-class service for this important national security program."