Owner of Ship Repair Firm Pleads Not Guilty
The owner of a San Diego ship repair company pleaded not guilty Friday to a litany of federal charges ranging from conspiracy and embezzlement to violating campaign contribution laws.
David Lee Bain, the owner and president of Pacific Ship Repair & Fabrication Inc., was released on a $300,000 bond secured by his home after entering his plea. He is named in a wide-ranging indictment announced Thursday by the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego.
The 32-count indictment accuses Bain and nine others of conspiracy, embezzling from an employee profit-sharing plan, theft from the Navy, illegal campaign contributions and other federal violations.
Four other defendants in the case were also arraigned and released Friday after pleading not guilty and posting a bond. The defendants were George Steven Parker of El Cajon, Max Dell Smith of Poway, Bruce Edward Williams of Santee and MDS Unlimited Inc., a subsidiary of Pacific Ship Repair.
Parker, former chief executive and owner of the local shipyard, posted a $300,000 bond secured by real estate, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Lauchlan Jr.
Smith posted a $25,000 bond and Williams posted a $10,000 bond, with both bonds secured by real estate, Lauchlan said.
Other defendants are expected to be arraigned soon.
In a separate action Thursday, prosecutors also charged the company, Bain and company foreman David Blalock, with violating the federal Clean Air Act while removing asbestos from the aircraft carrier Ranger in late 1989 and early 1990 by allowing the cancer-causing material to be released into the air. The ship was moored at North Island Naval Air Station at the time.
In a statement, the company called the misdemeanor Clear Air Act charge “without merit,” and said it will plead not guilty.
Besides the defendants who appeared Friday, the indictment names George Thomas Keen Jr. of Ranchita in East San Diego County, a former part-owner of the firm, and John Elbert Elledge of Florida, the company’s former controller.
Also indicted were Richard Alan Keen of Lakeside and Robert Wesley Spann and Edwin Grant Speakman IV, both of San Diego.
The defendants are accused of embezzling about $1.4 million from the firm’s employee profit-sharing plan in 1986 to pay off the company’s creditors and avoid involuntary bankruptcy.
The defendants also are accused of keeping a $1-million overpayment mistakenly issued by the Navy for 18 months before returning it. They allegedly broke tax and other laws while trying to hide the embezzlement and the Navy money, the indictment said.
