Tax Court Contracting Official Sentenced in Bribery Case

by Deb Cupples | Last week, the Justice Department reported:

"A former official of the U.S. Tax Court was sentenced today in connection with a bribery conspiracy involving contracts at the U.S. Tax Court in the District of Columbia....

"Fred Fernando Timbol Jr., 43, of Mount Airy, Md., was sentenced by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Timbol pleaded guilty on Aug. 14, 2008, to one count of conspiracy. As part of the plea agreement and by order of the court, Timbol also agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $24,142.99."

"According to court documents, Timbol was a facilities services officer in the Facilities Management Section of the U.S. Tax Court. In that position, Timbol was responsible for assisting in the award of contracts to contractors who provided maintenance, construction and other related services to the U.S. Tax Court. Between July 2005 and April 2006, Timbol admitted he solicited and personally accepted at least $12,471 from a government contractor in exchange for rigging the award of at least six inflated contracts at the U.S. Tax Court."

How on earth are we taxpayers supposed to reduce waste, fraud and abuse on the part of government contractors if the watchdogs are looking for payoffs?

While I'm glad that the Justice Department is prosecuting such cases, doesn't it seem that our government likely has bigger fish to fry than some court manager who took less than $15,000 in bribes?

Other Buck Naked Politics Posts:

* High Cost of Private Contracting

* Business as Usual: Doctors Charged with $10 Million Medicare Fraud

* Insurance Companies Get Away with Over-billing Medicare

* AT&T to Pay $8.2 Million to Settle False Claims Act Case

* Investigators Look at Bribery by Senior Military Officers, Should Look Higher

* KBR to Pay $579 Million to Settle Bribery Charges

*  Inspector General Blocked Investigations into Waste & Fraud?

* Have U.S. Officials Protected Blackwater?

* Time to Get Really Serious about Contractor Fraud

* Billions over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud

* Yet Another Contractor Bilks Taxpayers

* How the Energy Dept. Incinerated Tax Dollars

* New Orleans Still Suffering after 2 Years and Billions of Tax Dollars

* How the Defense Dept. Flushes Dollars Down Latrine   

* U.S. Embassies: Still More Examples of Contractor Problems

* Contractors Offering Bribes to Army Personnel?

* Taxpayers Losing Money to Engorged Contractors

* Audit Red-Flags Contractor in Iraq

* Defense Dept. Rewarding Bad Contractor Performance?

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