Bribe scheme

A federal judge is questioning why the government wants to let an Army subcontractor off with just a fine, rather than pursue charges in a criminal case against the company whose founder doled out tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to a corrupt Army official.

Prosecutors have proposed letting Saena Tech pay a $500,000 fine and enact a corporate compliance program as punishment for the company’s part in what prosecutors have called the largest domestic bribery case in U.S. contracting history. If approved, the deal would allow prosecutors to drop the charges within two years.

But more than a dozen other figures in the case are serving federal prison sentences, and U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan raised questions about why Saena Tech’s founder got what another government contractor called a “sweetheart deal.”

Judge questions government’s ‘sweetheart’ deal in Armybribery case