Navy Yard Engineer Charged İn $10m Kickback Scheme

A senior engineer at the Washington Navy Yard and a founder of a Georgia-based technology services company have been charged in a $10 million kickback and bribery scheme, federal prosecutors announced. Ralph M. Mariano, 52, of Arlington, and Anjan Dutta-Gupta, 58, of Roswell, Ga., were charged and released last week in a Rhode Island federal court. The men face up to 15 years in prison and fines of $250,000 if convicted of the federal bribery charges.
Prosecutors said the kickback scheme goes back to 1998 and has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars, most of which was funneled back to Mariano, his father, brother, girlfriend and associates.

In return, prosecutors said, Dutta-Gupta's Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow technology company received lucrative contracts. The Georgia-based company has an office in Rhode Island and 10 Navy contracts worth $120 million.

"The Navy has paid millions of dollars in inflated costs to ASFT, much of which was then paid to Mariano," states the charging document signed by Patrick J. Hegarty, a criminal investigator with the U.S. Defense Department.

Mariano's attorney Paul Mastrocola did not immediately return a call for comment.

Mariano is a civilian employee, a senior systems engineer for the Naval Sea Systems Command, or NAVSEA, with offices at the Washington Navy Yard and in Newport, R.I. He is also a technical adviser for the Navy's Small Business Innovation and Research program, which funds early-stage research to stimulate innovation and increase small participation in federal programs.