S.D. Defense Firm Named in Probe Papers
A top civilian official of the Air Force, Victor D. Cohen, “used his official position” to help consultant William Galvin and his defense contractor clients--including San Diego-based Cubic Corp.--in exchange for “payments and other gratuities” for at least six years, according to documents released Tuesday in the Pentagon procurement scandal.
An affidavit ordered unsealed Tuesday by a federal magistrate in Hyattsville, Md., portrays Cohen, deputy for tactical systems with the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, as “a constant source of information and assistance” to Galvin’s clients.
The affidavit alleges, based on information obtained from wiretaps on Galvin’s telephone and a bugging device in his office, that at least three defense contractors--Unisys Corp., Loral Electronic Systems Division and Cubic--appear to have paid Cohen for help.
Frustration Described
“Cohen’s participation has ranged from providing Galvin’s clients with proprietary information to structuring procurements in a manner that eliminates competition,” the affidavit says. “Cohen’s assistance to Galvin’s clients can clearly be traced to illegal payments and gratuities provided to him by Galvin or the clients.”
The Cohen affidavit describes the mounting frustration of the president of Cubic’s Defense Systems subsidiary, C. C. (Sam) Wellborn, with Cohen, who, he reportedly complained to Galvin, had “stalled for six months” on providing a certain acquisition plan.
“Cohen’s willingness to assist Cubic in obtaining government contracts can be traced to what is believed to be the receipt of a payment from Cubic,” the affidavit says. The rest of the page and about half the next page were blanked out.
Lawyers for Cohen and Galvin could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Cubic spokesman Jerry Ringer did not return a telephone call Tuesday night.
There have been no indictments in the long-running Justice Department investigation, and well-informed sources have said that, despite two years of effort and numerous wiretaps, it may be months before the most serious charges emerge in the case.
The affidavit, filed under seal last June to justify a search of Cohen’s house in Potomac, Md., was one of three released Tuesday in response to a lawsuit by the Washington Post. Parts of the affidavits were heavily edited at the request of the U. S. attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., which is coordinating the investigation.
Payments Alleged
Another affidavit involved the search of the Berwyn Heights, Md., house of Richard Seelmeyer, a former aide to the late Rep. Joseph A. Addabbo (D-N.Y.). Seelmeyer operated an airplane used by Unisys to provide flights for members of Congress, including House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Roy Dyson (D-Md.).
According to that affidavit, “investigation of Unisys activities demonstrates that (former Unisys Vice President and later company consultant Charles) Gardner and others have sought to corruptly influence congressional legislation on defense programs through payment of monies and gratuities to selected congressmen.”
Unisys lawyer Charles F. C. Ruff said Tuesday that he had “absolutely no knowledge of or any comment about any attempt to corruptly influence or the payment of gratuities to any congressmen.”
The Seelmeyer search affidavit discusses “references” in wiretapped conservations suggesting that “payments to Seelmeyer are to keep him quiet. . . . Gardner has made references on several occasions that, if Seelmeyer were to talk he could do a lot of damage, in particular in reference to Congressman Dyson’s trip to New York in May, 1988, which Seelmeyer apparently had a role in planning.”
Dyson flew to New York last May for a briefing by Unisys officials. That weekend, Dyson top aide Tom Pappas, who had accompanied the lawmaker on the trip, jumped to his death from a New York hotel after publication of a front-page story in the Washington Post about Pappas’ conduct in Dyson’s congressional office.
“I didn’t have any role in making that trip,” Seelmeyer said in a brief telephone conversation Tuesday. “I knew they were going up there, but that was it.” Seelmeyer then ended the conversation.
Inside Information
The third affidavit whose contents were partially unsealed Tuesday supported the search of the Rockville, Md., house and office of consultant Bill Sanda, who allegedly worked with another consultant, William Parkin, to provide inside information to Unisys and other defense contractors. Sanda and his lawyer could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The three affidavits are among only a few affidavits and other court papers that have become available since the investigation burst into public view last June when FBI and Naval Investigative Service agents conducted more than 40 searches nationwide of defense contractors, consultants and Defense Department officials in connection with a probe that began in secrecy in September, 1986.
Since then, optimistic predictions of an imminent indictment have proven wrong as investigators have encountered more difficulty than expected in building criminal cases. Law enforcement officials familiar with details of the probe, which many described as one of the most serious military corruption scandals in history, have asserted that it was exaggerated by the news media.
The documents unsealed Tuesday are based solely on the knowledge investigators had by last June, after 18 months of wiretaps. Since then, investigators have sought to corroborate the eavesdropped, sometimes boastful statements by consultants who may have been exaggerating their influence or the difficulty they had in procuring information.
The affidavits offer a snapshot of an inbred, dog-eat-dog world of highly paid defense consultants--often former Pentagon employees--and their secret dealings with Defense Department officials, allied fellow consultants and top corporate officers seeking an edge on the competition.
The Sanda affidavit, for example, alleges that Parkin provided Sanda, his fellow consultant, with confidential information about a Navy contract and “told Sanda to show (the document) to the people at Unisys to prove that he had an inside source.”
Parkin, through a complicated chain, then obtained a copy of the acquisition plan for the contract from consultant Thomas E. Muldoon, who got the information from consultant Mark C. Saunders, who got it from George Stone, an employee at the Navy office handling the contract, the affidavit said.
