Ex-Aerospace Worker Sentenced for Taking Kickbacks on Military Subcontracts

A former aerospace worker was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in a halfway house and fined $2,500 for accepting kickbacks on subcontracts for military communications systems.

Carl Andy Romero, 70, was also placed on three years’ probation by U. S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts, who could have sentenced him to nine years in prison.

The Westminster man, a former senior buyer for Datron Systems Inc. in Simi Valley, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on Jan. 5 to two counts of accepting kickbacks and one of defrauding the Defense Department and his employer.

In return, prosecutors dropped the rest of a 16-count indictment.

The indictment said Romero agreed in 1981 to accept bribes from Rex Niles, a sales representative for several suppliers, that equaled 4.5% of each contract he awarded to one of Niles’ clients.

The kickbacks, totaling more than $15,000, involved contracts for tactical satellite communications and antenna systems for the Army and Navy, the indictment said.

Niles became a government witness and aided in the indictment of more than a dozen former aerospace workers.