Hermosa Beach Executive Fined $10,000 in Bribery of Hughes Worker : Aerospace: He’s also given 3 years’ probation for paying engineer to obtain preferential treatment for his firm.

A Hermosa Beach electronics executive has been fined $10,000 and placed on three years’ probation for bribing a Hughes engineer to get preferential treatment for his company.

Bradley S. Rush, 27, vice president of Chatsworth-based EEI Inc., pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony count of providing a kickback on a government contract. His company also pleaded guilty to the same felony charge and was fined $20,000.

According to Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen A. Mansfield, Rush paid $750 to Donald L. Wright, a former Hughes Ground System Group engineer, to list EEI on Hughes’ preferred vendor list, from which parts suppliers are selected. EEI sold parts used in military computer display systems to the company, which is based in Fullerton and is part of Hughes Aircraft Co. The value of that contract was not available, Mansfield said.

Rush, who declined to be interviewed in detail, said Wright approached him for the kickback payment after Rush hired a sales representative recommended by Wright.

“I did not blow off the situation quickly enough,” Rush said. “I was in a bad position and made some very bad choices.”

Rush said he cooperated with federal officials and said stories in the media have exaggerated his company’s role in the scheme and cost his firm business. EEI, which once had a work force of 28 people making electronic equipment, now employs five, he said.

“What I did was absolutely wrong, but the way the press magnified it has not been fair and just at all,” he said.

Mansfield said Rush’s prosecution has been part of an investigation by the FBI and Department of Defense called “Operation Clean Sweep,” which is tracking kickbacks in the defense industry.

The investigation began after two companies complained to federal officials that Wright, 47, had solicited them for kickbacks. Those companies, Lyn-Tron Inc. of Burbank and Bergquist Co. of Long Beach, helped investigators orchestrate a sting in which Wright received an $800 payment from Lyn-Tron.

Mansfield said the kickbacks were laundered through Glenda’s Cleaning Service, a business run by Wright’s wife, Glenda. To hide his increased income, Wright created invoices indicating that the payments were for cleaning services.

Wright pleaded guilty to receiving kickbacks from Lyn-Tron and Bergquist. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced June 24.

A second company, Fastener Innovation Technology of Gardena, and its president, Jams Spiropolous of Rancho Palos Verdes, have also pleaded guilty to paying Wright $3,000 in return for his approving the company as a supplier of radar parts. Sentencing in that case is pending. The value of that contract was not available, Mansfield said.

William Dougherty, an attorney for Wright, said the former engineer has been cooperating with investigators, who are pursuing charges against other companies that allegedly paid kickbacks.

“He did a very dumb thing and he realizes it was dumb and he turned around and cooperated completely with the government,” Dougherty said. “He’s done everything he’s been asked to do.”