Camp Pendleton
A former Camp Pendleton housing inspector pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiring to bribe inspectors to inflate estimates of base construction projects to benefit two Huntington Beach contractors.
Robert Rego, 51, of Vista, was charged along with three other men with paying bribes to base housing and facility inspectors in exchange for overlooking deficiencies in work performed, inflating work orders and providing the contractors with pre-contract bid information to circumvent the competitive bidding process.
The alleged fraud involves two contracting firms, Circle “N” Inc. and U.S. Construction Inc., according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory Vega.
“The way the base contracting process works, one inspector decides what needs to be done, and a second reviews the work after it’s been completed,” Vega said. “These guys were bribing the first inspectors to over-inflate the work order to make more money for the contractors.”
Co-defendant Evangelos Pantazis, 35, has also pleaded guilty. A third man is awaiting trail, and a fourth remains a fugitive, authorities said.
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