By your own statements he knows the government contract process very well after 35 years in the game at W-P AFB, which is very busy with many huge AF contracts. So he should know better then to write a contract in which he has an obvious conflict of interest.
He had a clear conflict of interest in drafting a contract himself, that would essentially guarantee that he got the contract. You claim he had no criminal intent, however in your first paragraph you provide a motive, by describing how he was apprehensive about retiring from his civil service job, unless he had a guaranteed "retirement" job.
Also, since I know a little bit about contract fraud, not a lot, but enough to see some holes in your story, and I think either you are leaving some things out, or your Dad didn't give you the whole story. There would have to be much more going on here for AFOSI or DCIS, to spend time to investigate this matter, and for the AUSA in that district, to consider prosecuting, in the case.
My Dad worked FOR the government but he wasn't a specialist in contracts or anything. He went around managing the installation of Tempest level video conferencing rooms at AFB's all over the world. (Including on Air Force One.) I'm not saying he didn't have any idea what he was doing was against the rules. But I've talked to others in the Federal government and more at the State level and they all look at me with their mouths open and say some variety of, "but everybody does that!" I know, I know, that's no defense. Dad screwed up and he would tell you that himself. He should have been more a stickler for the rules. But he was eligible to retire and he wanted to get the ball rolling on the contract. He let the slowness of the process frustrate him to the point where he just did it himself. As you said, he wrote a contract that virtually only he was qualified to accept.
This also seems to me to be a long way from "defrauding" the government since, in the final analysis, he actually was doing the job. He was doing it as a contractor and getting more per hour but the government wasn't having to pay all the things an employer pays a full-time permanent employee. No one has ever said the contract was for too much money or that Dad wasn't doing a perfectly good job. It was just the process of getting the job that got him in trouble.
When the investigation started, they told him to stay home until it was finished. Months went by. Finally Dad realized he needed a lawyer. In retrospect, he didn't get a very good one. If he had had the money to get some genius with lots of experience, this would have all ended a lot better for him a long time ago. For a while Mom and Dad weren't that concerned because they thought it would eventually all be dismissed. Later they thought he might get reprimanded and have to pay a fine. Even later he started to think he was going to lose the contract and the ability to work. Then finally the government decided he needed to pay restitution for all the work that he already did and for the flights he took to do the jobs.
I think a lot of people in the family were confused by the prosecution. I KNOW my Dad was. He finally decided that they were using him to get somebody bigger but he couldn't figure out who that might be. And then, when nobody bigger developed, the prosecuter couldn't just walk away without charging Dad. It seems like the prosecuter is trying to get a conviction and big sentence on this just to advance his personal career.
My Dad's defense lawyer was talking to him about this last year and said something like this: "The sentencing guidelines for this crime go from x to y. The judge will try to determine how serious the breach of law was. Let's say it is a continuum from 1 to 100. 1 is virtually nil while 100 is really odious. On that scale, you are about a 2!" So my Dad kept thinking it was going to be settled and be over. He finally even agreed to plead guilty to a felony just to get it over with. He wouldn't do that again if he could go back in time because it didn't stop. They told him it could take a year for a trial if he didn't plead guilty but it's been 8 months already since then!
Believe me, I understand that it seems unlikely that the government would be going after my Dad for this but it's happening. He never had anything bad on his work history. He had the highest possible security rating (well beyond Top Secret). Actually he told me once he thought that might be part of the issue. That his security level was supposed to be above reproach. So they wanted to make an example of him.
All this aside, back to the thread!! The question was, "did somebody in this situation DESERVE to lose their right to own firearms?" It's hard to see a "threat of violence" in what my dad did. It's hard to see how making him give up guns he's owned since the 1950's is somehow part of an appropriate sentence.
I think the family is a little disillusioned by the whole process. It seems like the government can decide to go after you for whatever reason and there isn't much you can do about it. You retain lawyers and they slowly drain your finances. Somebody who just retired can't really afford to spend several thousand dollars every month while nothing really seems to be happening. The government can just keep dragging it out. They can refuse to accept the recommendations of the court officials. (Which is what happened when the court PO recommended zero restitution. She didn't see why Dad should have to give back money for work he DID do.) It's like they hold all the cards and all you can do is watch your personal reputation slowly dissolve along with any money you thought you had put away for the future. I think the "convicted felon" label and loss of reputation is the worst for my Dad. He's one of those people who would die inside before failing to keep a promise or something. I can look at him now and see how much older he suddenly looks. The government has managed to age my Dad 5-10 years in only 2 so we all appreciate that. But that's all part of the hell of it. You lose your reputation. You lose your ability to work. You lose a heck of a lot of money to your own lawyers. You get all the stress you could ever want. And yet none of that is even part of the sentencing! My parents are going to be making "easy monthly payments" on the fine and restitution for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, that's fair.
Gregg
