Contractors, Inspector Charged With Pendleton Fraud

A federal grand jury in San Diego on Friday charged three contractors and a former Camp Pendleton building inspector with conspiracy and bribery involving $1 million in projects at the Marine base.

The nine-count felony indictment claims that, during 1986 and 1987, work orders were inflated, inspectors were bribed to overlook deficient work and the bidding process was rigged.

Named in the complaint are Circle N. Inc. and U.S. Construction, both of Huntington Beach; Theodoros Adamopoulos, 48, of Huntington Beach; Constantius Mantikas, 57, of Rancho Palos Verdes; Evangelos Pantazis, 35, of Los Alamitos, Calif.; and Robert Rego, 51, of Vista.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory Vega said U.S. Construction had been awarded a $731,000 contract to repair the exteriors of some buildings, and Circle N had a $320,000 contract to paint the interiors of housing units at the base.

The indictment alleges that Adamopoulos, owner of both firms, approached Rego, who was then a civilian building inspector at the base, about helping carry out the alleged scheme to defraud the federal government.

“We know he (Rego) got money, we don’t know how much,” Vega said.

According to the indictment, the contractors submitted an uncompetitive low bid by paying employees less than the wages required under the federal Davis-Bacon Act, which sets salaries for all employees of firms working on government contracts.

A statement released by the U.S. attorney’s office said the corporations, through their employees and officers, “attempted to circumvent the competitive bidding process at Camp Pendleton by having the inspectors to whom bribes were being paid provide pre-contract bid information.”

Vega said Rego supplied the firms with pre-bid information.

Once the contracts were awarded, Adamopoulos, Pantazis and Rego allegedly paid bribes to a building inspector to “substantially” over-report the square footage painted at the base housing units.

Further, Mantikas is accused of paying $4,000 in cash to a facility maintenance inspector to overlook deficiencies in exterior work done at various buildings and for not reporting alleged violations of the Brown-Bacon Act.

The U.S. attorney’s statement, released just before 5 p.m. Friday, didn’t indicate the positions Pantazis and Mantikas held with the contracting firms. Nor did it provide detailed information about the bidding, how much the painting job was allegedly over-reported, or in what way the repair work was purportedly deficient.

Charged with bribery are Rego, Adamopoulos, Pantazis and Mantikas. The two corporations were charged with conspiracy.