Updated: 6:30 pm, Oct. 4, 2011
An employee of Alaska Native Corporation EyakTek was arrested today (Tuesday) for his alleged role in a major 20 million dollar bribery and kickback scheme. Harold Babb is director of contracts for EyakTek or Eyak Technology LLC which operates under the Eyak Native Corporation.
The U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Ronald Machen called it “one of the most brazen federal procurement scandals in our nation’s history.” Babb is accused of conspiring with three other men, two of whom worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Prosecutors say Army Corps employees Kerry Khan and Michael Alexander funneled more than 45 million dollars in payments to a favored company prosecutors did not name and only called “Company A” in the indictment. The Corps employees planned to steer hundreds of millions more to the business through a federal contract they oversaw. They padded invoices by 20 million dollars, which went to them, Kahn’s son Lee and the Eyak Tek employee Babb. Prosecutors say “Company A” submitted fraudulent and inflated invoices to EyakTek, and the work was certified as completed. The four allegedly used the illegal money to buy more than a dozen properties, sports cars, airline tickets and luxury items. U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen called the scheme staggering in scope.
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