Ex-Official Linked to Wedtech Given ‘Secret’ Clearance
A former Navy civilian official who has been repeatedly named in federal court testimony as accepting bribes in connection with the Wedtech scandal continues to do business with the Navy and has been given a “secret” level security clearance, according to documents and sources.
Richard D. Ramirez, the former official, is now an owner of a company that won a $14-million contract to computerize maintenance schedules on the Navy’s ships in the Pacific.
While head of the Navy’s program to set aside contracts for small, minority-owned companies, Ramirez accepted $60,000 from Wedtech officials to help the firm win a $134-million contract to build pontoons for the Navy, according to federal court testimony this year in New York and last year in Baltimore.
Was Promised $120,000
Ramirez, while a Navy official, also was promised $120,000 that Wedtech allegedly funneled to him through a company in Pennsylvania, according to the testimony.
During Senate subcommittee hearings on the Wedtech scandal in September of 1987, Ramirez, through his attorney, refused to testify, citing the Fifth Amendment. On Oct. 1, 1987, the Navy exercised an option allowing Ramirez to continue with his maintenance contract, according to Navy records. In November, according to correspondence between Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) and the Pentagon’s Defense Investigative Service, Ramirez’s security status was raised from “confidential” to “secret.”
The security clearance was elevated, Levin complained, in spite of the fact that one of Ramirez’s attorneys had told the subcommittee on oversight of government management that “his client was the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.”
‘No Adverse Information’
Thomas J. O’Brien, director of the Defense Investigative Service, replied in a letter to Levin that “no adverse information regarding Mr. Ramirez was developed.”
Ramirez left the Navy in 1984 shortly before the Wedtech pontoon contract was awarded, but after it was clear that Wedtech would be chosen, according to the subcommittee report released in May. He subsequently opened his own company, the RD RAM Corp., and, as the only bidder, was awarded the ship maintenance program contract in June, 1987.
After Ramirez left his Navy job as head of the Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Office, the position was filled by H. Robert Saldivar, who was identified in federal court testimony as soliciting a loan from a Wedtech official to be given to a Washington-area restaurant at which Saldivar’s son worked. Federal prosecutors say the loan was for $25,000 and has not been repaid.
Now in VA Position
Saldivar is now director for Acquisition and Material Management for the Veterans Administration and says he is responsible for a budget of more than $3 billion a year for acquisition of medical supplies, equipment and drugs for VA hospitals.
Neither Ramirez nor Saldivar have been charged with any crimes. Ramirez and his attorney refused comment and Saldivar could not be reached for comment on the alleged $25,000 loan.
Ramirez set up the consulting firm RD RAM in Bethesda in 1984 along with his father, Jose A. Ramirez. In June he changed the name of the firm to Diversified Ventures Management Corp. with Ramirez’s father listed as president.
The company manages the Navy maintenance project out of its San Diego office. Using subcontractors, Ramirez’s firm is responsible for setting up an automated maintenance schedule for ships in San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco, Seattle, Pearl Harbor, Guam and Japan, according to a Navy spokesman.
Moreno’s Guilty Plea
Mario E. Moreno, former vice chairman of the Wedtech board, is one of several witnesses to testify about Ramirez in federal court.
Moreno, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud in the case, testified that Wedtech officials bribed Ramirez with $60,000 in cash and later made payments by check. In return for the money Ramirez was supposed to help Wedtech win the pontoon contract, Moreno testified.
Mary Shannon, assistant U.S. attorney in the Wedtech racketeering and bribery trial of Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.) in progress in New York, said Moreno also testified that $120,000 was funneled to Ramirez through a company in Pennsylvania.
Moreno also testified that Saldivar, who took over Ramirez’s Navy job shortly after he left, solicited a $25,000 loan for a restaurant at which his son worked. “Moreno also testified that he believed that Saldivar was an honest man and never did anything improper,” Shannon said.
“That ($25,000) was chump change for Wedtech,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward Little, another prosecutor in the case.
Moreno testified that before granting the restaurant loan, Wedtech officials had offered Saldivar $10,000, which he turned down.
Saldivar, who worked on the Wedtech contract as an official in the Small Business Administration before taking over Ramirez’s job, testified before the Senate subcommittee that he had not reported the $10,000 offer because he didn’t know if it was a serious offer:
“I thought perhaps I was being felt out, to see whether or not I was the type of person who would take money or not.”
Wedtech was a small military contractor in the Bronx that sought to gain major Army and Navy contracts. But it wound up in bankruptcy after federal officials began investigating allegations of influence-peddling that involve Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III.
A number of Wedtech officials have pleaded guilty in federal court to such charges as falsifying government documents and conspiracy. Others still face possible charges and trial as investigations continue by an independent counsel, U.S. attorneys and the Labor Department.
