Ex-Unisys Official Is Sentenced in Bribery Case

In the stiffest sentence handed down so far in the “Ill Wind” defense procurement scandal, former Unisys Corp. executive Charles F. Gardner was ordered Friday to serve 32 months in jail and pay a $40,000 fine for his role in bribing government officials.

A Gardner associate, James G. Neal, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and fined $30,000 for creating secret offshore accounts to bribe Pentagon officials and members of Congress to help Unisys win multibillion-dollar defense contracts.

Gardner, 58, admitted in March that he had directed Neal to bribe former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Melvyn R. Paisley by purchasing Paisley’s ski resort condominium at an inflated price in return for preferential treatment on Navy and Marine Corps business.

At the same time, Neal admitted paying $400,000 to Garland L. Tomlin Jr., a former Navy engineer, to help Unisys win a large Navy contract. Tomlin is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to bribery charges earlier this year.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Aronica called Gardner “a major figure in this investigation” who had provided valuable information about other suspects in the broad corruption inquiry.

Defense attorney Gary Naftalis told U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton that Gardner’s cooperation had already led to six guilty pleas and “will lead to more and more convictions” of individuals and corporations.

Neal, 63, was “Gardner’s banker,” Aronica said. “But he was more than a banker. He knew exactly what was going on and actively participated.”

Gardner and Neal earlier in the year admitted that they employed a complex scheme to funnel corporate funds to the two Navy officials and to the reelection campaigns of Rep. Roy Dyson (D-Md.) and the late Rep. Bill Chappell Jr. (D-Fla.) and others with influence over defense procurement.

The government has no evidence that the lawmakers were aware that the contributions were illegal corporate funds, Aronica said.

To finance the purchase of Paisley’s Sun Valley, Ida., condominium, Neal deposited more than $150,000 in Unisys money into an account on Britain’s Isle of Man, which has secretive banking laws. He then transferred the funds to a company he controlled in the Bahamas, and finally passed the money through a third firm to buy the condominium.

Neal admitted that he paid Paisley $149,000 for the unit, which he knew was worth only $100,000.

Paisley has not been charged with any crime in connection with the Pentagon fraud probe, but Aronica said Paisley remains a major target of the investigation.

At the time of the illicit activity, Gardner was a senior executive at Sperry Corp., which merged with Burroughs Corp. in 1986 to form Unisys.