Parkin, Berlin Sentenced for Pentagon Fraud

Consultant William L. Parkin and the former Navy engineer he bribed were given 26-month prison terms Friday for illegally scheming to help two companies get lucrative Pentagon contracts.

Parkin, 65, and Stuart E. Berlin, 51, also were each fined $25,000 and ordered to serve two years of supervised probation after their release from prison.

Berlin said his crime was “the worst mistake that I ever made in my life.” He added: “The last year has been a living hell for me.”

Minimum Security

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton said both defendants, who have cooperated with the Justice Department’s Operation Ill Wind investigation of Pentagon procurement fraud since pleading guilty, could serve their time in minimum-security prisons.

Parkin pleaded guilty to charges that he bribed Berlin to provide secret Navy bid information that would help Teledyne Electronics, based in Newbury Park, Calif., and Hazeltine Corp. of Long Island, N.Y., obtain lucrative contracts to sell electronic equipment to the Pentagon.

Berlin, who admitted from the witness stand in April that he took thousands of dollars in bribes while he worked for the Navy, was sentenced for taking nearly $5,000 in bribes in return for giving Parkin the bid information.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph J. Aronica said both men, who had testified at the trial of two Teledyne executives who were convicted for their roles in the conspiracy, are cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation.

Motivated by ‘Greed’

Aronica said Berlin’s receipt of bribes “is perhaps the most serious offense that a government official can commit. It is a violation of the public trust. It is a corruption that is motivated by nothing more than his own greed.”

Parkin’s role “as front man and the individual to whom money was paid kept the conspiracy afloat,” Aronica said. The prosecutor said “corrupting of a public official is reprehensible, especially for a former government official.”

Parkin, himself a former Navy employee, admitted that he had taken $50,000 in bribes over a 10-year period when he worked for the Defense Department.

Center of Scheme

Court documents indicate that after opening a private consulting business in 1983, Parkin became the center of a bribery scheme involving efforts to trade and sell confidential Pentagon information to help companies bid on contracts.

Aronica told the judge that Parkin arranged to be paid $272,000 in consulting fees from Teledyne and Hazeltine that he agreed to split with Berlin and others to obtain confidential bid information.

Defense attorney Leonard Greenbaum urged the judge to take into account that Berlin received less than his share of the bribe money because he was “shortchanged at the outset” by Parkin and Fred H. Lackner. Lackner, a Los Angeles defense consultant, is awaiting sentencing for his role as go-between from Parkin to Berlin.