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Known to Be Easygoing, Consultant Is Portrayed as Calculating : Indictment Casts Lackner in New Light

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Times Staff Writer

Jovial, easygoing and well-connected in the Washington, D.C., military Establishment. That’s how Fred H. Lackner, a Woodland Hills defense consultant indicted Friday in the Pentagon fraud scandal was known among friends, colleagues and employers in Southern California.

But a different picture of the man emerges from the multiple-count indictment for bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and racketeering that was handed down by a federal grand jury in Virginia.

In the indictment and other court documents, Lackner, 52, who worked over the last two decades for six Southern California defense contractors, is painted as a shrewd and calculating information peddler, anxious to maximize his profit from the network of Pentagon consultants and insiders with whom he routinely dealt.

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Lackner’s attorney on Friday denied, as he has before, any wrongdoing by his client.

Contacts Described

According to these papers, Lackner bought his information from Stuart E. Berlin, a friend of more than 20 years who until recently served as a Navy procurement official in the Pentagon. Lackner reportedly sold the inside Pentagon information to William L. Parkin, a fellow defense consultant and friend of 10 years whose clients included Teledyne Electronics in Newbury Park, a unit of Los Angeles-based Teledyne Inc., and Hazeltine Corp. of Greenlawn, N.Y., a unit of Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis.

Prosecutors charge that the confidential information ultimately gave Hazeltine and Teledyne an unfair advantage in the competition for two lucrative defense contracts. Hazeltine and two employees pleaded guilty Friday to a total of five charges stemming from the scandal. The company was fined $1.9 million. Teledyne Electronics and three of its management employees were also indicted on several charges.

Two Contracts Singled Out

Investigators and prosecutors zeroed in on two contracts involving Lackner, Parkin and Berlin.

One contract was awarded to Teledyne for a hand-held device that allows maintenance crews to test radar-like equipment in some Air Force and Navy planes. In court documents, investigators quote Parkin and Lackner as taking credit for ensuring Teledyne’s victory with two key maneuvers.

First, the two men, working with Berlin, allegedly were successful in persuading the Navy to reverse its decision to award the contract only to a “small business.” Then, once the competition was opened to larger corporations, Parkin and Lackner worked with Berlin to have Teledyne’s only remaining competitor, Tel Instruments of New Jersey, eliminated.

Dropped Before Evaluation

Prosecutors contend that the power the three men exercised over the contract is demonstrated by the fact that Tel Instruments was dropped from consideration even before a formal evaluation of the competing products was completed. According to court documents, the Navy conducted an evaluation of Teledyne’s device after the contract decision was made “to make it look good.”

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Teledyne allegedly paid Parkin a total of $150,000 over two years for his efforts, which he shared in part with Lackner.

Despite his longtime friendship with Berlin, at one point, according to wiretapped conversations, Lackner suggested to Parkin that they tell Berlin that they were getting only $50,000 a year, not $75,000, so Lackner would “only have to pay Berlin $1,000 per month” for his assistance.

In another instance that prosecutors contend was part of a pattern of paying off Berlin for his information, Lackner and Parkin and Michael Savaides, Teledyne’s Washington marketing representative, each chipped in $346 from their shares of Parkin’s Teledyne payment and gave it to Berlin, according to court documents. Wiretapped conversations between Lackner and Parkin recount this discussion on March 1, 1988, and, the following day, Lackner and Savaides were seen by investigators at a bank. Lackner later met with Berlin.

Withdrew Cash at Bank

Nearly three months later, Parkin and Lackner were seen at a Washington-area bank, where they withdrew cash. That night Lackner was observed dining with Berlin, according to the documents.

Lackner’s attorney, William Dougherty, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing by his client. “Mr. Lackner never paid Mr. Berlin 1 cent,” he said Friday.

The second contract, for a similar testing device for Navy aircraft, sparked a competition between finalists Gould Inc. of Rolling Meadows, Ill. and Hazeltine Corp. On this contract, prosecutors argue, Parkin and Lackner shared Parkin’s $24,000-annual fee from Hazeltine.

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And prosecutors contend that a portion of that fee made its way to Berlin.

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