An indictment unsealed Friday revealed new details of a growing bribery scheme involving a former San Diego-area Department of Defense civil engineer who allegedly secured no-work jobs for family members and friends and accepted fancy meals and expensive sports tickets in exchange for helping government contractors obtain hugely lucrative contracts.
The scheme, being prosecuted in federal court in San Diego, centers around 63-year-old Las Vegas resident James Soriano, a former engineer at San Diego’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which was formerly known by the acronym SPAWAR but has since changed its name to Naval Information Warfare Center.
Soriano was first indicted in November on charges that he accepted thousands of dollars worth of meals and tickets to the World Series and Super Bowl from Virginia-based defense contractor Philip Flores. In exchange for those perks, Soriano and a colleague allegedly steered lucrative contracts to Flores and his company, IntelliPeak Solutions, and took a variety of other actions to help Flores and IntelliPeak.
The newest indictment alleges similar quid pro quo by Soriano and Russell Thurston, a 51-year-old South Carolina resident and former high-ranking employee at a defense contracting firm with its main offices in Virginia and South Carolina. The indictment, which alleges that Soriano helped Thurston’s company secure a contract that could have been worth as much as $300 million, also accuses unnamed co-conspirators of taking part in the bribery scheme and hints at potential charges involving additional individuals and defense contracting firms.
Soriano and Thurston both pleaded not guilty Thursday to conspiracy and bribery charges. An attorney for Soriano did not respond to a request for comment Friday, while Thurston’s attorneys declined to comment.
Leaders from the firm that Thurston worked for at the time of his alleged criminal conduct did not immediately respond late Friday afternoon to messages seeking comment. The indictment alleges the company, which is not named in the indictment, took part in the bribery scheme along with two of its employees and one of its consultants.
“This indictment reveals callous greed at the cost of taxpayer dollars,” San Diego-area U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement Thursday. “This office will vigorously investigate and prosecute fraud that threatens public trust in our institutions.”
The indictment unsealed Friday revealed that authorities launched an investigation into Soriano at least as early as 2019, and that the first charges related to the scheme were filed three years ago.
In April 2021, a woman named Liberty Gutierrez pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge, admitting that she received $593,000 in salary from three contracting firms for which she did little or no actual work.
Gutierrez’s plea agreement and other documents in the case hinted at the much wider bribery scheme, though Soriano was not named in those documents, nor were the companies that paid her. But Soriano was described in that case as Gutierrez’s close family friend who worked at SPAWAR and helped her secure the no-work, no-show jobs.
The indictment unsealed Friday alleged that one of those jobs was with Thurston’s company and paid her $77,000 per year. Prosecutors allege she gave half her salary from that position to Soriano.
The indictment also alleges that Soriano had previously secured a similar job involving little or no work at Thurston’s company for a family member who had recently graduated college, as well as an $80-an-hour consulting position at the company for another individual.
Among the other perks that Thurston allegedly provided Soriano were four tickets to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. The indictment alleges the tickets cost $8,454, and Soriano attended the game with two unnamed co-conspirators — the consultant and a person who worked directly below Thurston at the contracting firm.
In exchange for the All-Star game tickets, the no-show employment and other perks, including lavish dinners, Soriano allegedly helped Thurston and his company secure a government task order with a potential value of more than $300 million.
“Soriano then approved numerous projects on this task order, ultimately causing the government to obligate more than $100 million to the company,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday.
The indictment alleges that in May 2019, Soriano and Thurston realized their scheme was beginning to collapse and they may be under investigation. Just months earlier, Soriano had attended the Super Bowl with Flores as part of a similar alleged quid pro quo scheme, according to the previous indictment.
Last year, a federal jury in Georgia convicted Flores and two other defense contractors of defrauding the U.S. to the tune of $8 million. Flores is appealing that conviction.
In October, Dawnell Parker, who worked under Soriano at SPAWAR, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Gutierrez, the first person publicly connected with the scheme who pleaded guilty in 2021, has had her sentencing hearing delayed several times, most recently in January. She’s now set to be sentenced in September.
