Consultant Gets 32-Month Term for Bribing 2 Pentagon Officials

Defense consultant William M. Galvin was sentenced Friday to 32 months in prison for bribing two senior Pentagon officials to influence the awarding of military contracts.

Galvin, 59, was also fined $10,000 by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton in Alexandria, Va., on his plea of guilty to conspiracy, bribery and tax evasion.

Along with another 32-month prison term given to a former Unisys Corp. executive, Galvin’s sentence was the longest imposed in the long-running investigation of Pentagon procurement fraud.

Operation Ill Wind has resulted in 39 convictions of defense consultants, executives of contractors and Pentagon officials.

Galvin faced a possible 40-year prison sentence and fines of up to $1 million. Federal sentencing guidelines showed that he should receive a prison term of between 51 and 63 months. But prosecutors, citing his “extraordinary cooperation” with investigators, asked Hilton to impose a shorter term.

Galvin’s guilty plea last March was a major step forward in the government’s investigation. He admitted arranging payments through a Swiss bank account to then-Assistant Navy Secretary Melvyn R. Paisley for helping the Israeli manufacturer Mazlat Ltd. sell remote-control pilotless intelligence airplanes to the Pentagon.

Galvin also admitted making monthly payments totaling $123,100 between 1983 to 1985 to a friend of Victor D. Cohen, then a deputy assistant Air Force secretary.

Neither Paisley nor Cohen has been charged, but both are under investigation.