Light Terms Given to First Two Convicted in Pentagon Scandal

Two Teledyne Electronics Inc. executives were given light sentences on Wednesday for their part in a scheme to bribe a Navy official to win a $24-million electronics contract.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams described George H. Kaub, 50, and Eugene R. Sullivan, 57, as “basically gofers” in the conspiracy.

Kaub was sentenced to six months in a halfway house and fined $30,000 for his conviction on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and filing false statements. Sullivan, convicted of conspiracy and wire fraud, will spend three months in a halfway house.

Both men were given two years of unsupervised probation and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

Each faced at least 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines.

Kaub and Sullivan were the first defendants found guilty at trial in the ongoing federal Ill Wind investigation into corruption in the Pentagon procurement system. In all, 14 individuals and two corporations have confessed to crimes uncovered in the three-year probe.

In handing down the sentences, Williams delivered a blast at the military procurement system, which he said was infested with “consultants--which in my view is a euphemism for rogues--who are permitted to lead a parasitic life off the system.”

Williams added: “I can’t believe our government, the executive and the legislature, lets a system like this endure.”

Kaub and Sullivan are vice presidents at Teledyne Electronics, a Newbury Park, Calif., subsidiary of Teledyne Inc. of Los Angeles.

They were convicted for their parts in a bribery scheme that developed after they hired Alexandria, Va., consultant William L. Parkin to help obtain a $24-million Navy contract for radar test gear.

Parkin shared his fees with fellow consultant Fred H. Lackner of Woodland Hills, Calif., who paid Navy procurement official Stuart E. Berlin for inside information. Teledyne’s Washington marketing representative, Michael Savaides, was also part of the scheme.

All have pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges. Teledyne pleaded guilty and agreed to pay as much as $8.4 million in fines and reimbursements for its role in the crimes.

Williams described Teledyne’s hiring of the consultants as an “outrageous arrangement” that provided $160,000 in fees “to take care of scum like Parkin and his playmates.”

In giving out the light sentences, Williams noted that Kaub and Sullivan had spotless records and were solid citizens in their California communities. He criticized their superiors at Teledyne for instructing them to participate in the scheme.

Kaub, his voice cracking, admitted a “serious error in judgment” and said: “This has taught me a very, very bitter and real lesson.”

Said Sullivan: “I’ve learned a very hard lesson.”