Sub-Contractor in Rhode Island Naval Funds Kickback Case to Plead Guilty to Lying to the FBI

PROVIDENCE, RI—Russell Spencer, 57, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, a sub-contractor who admitted in U.S. District Court in Providence in June 2011 to being the conduit for alleged kickbacks of naval funds from Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow (ASFT), of Middletown, Rhode Island and Roswell, Georgia, to Ralph Mariano, an engineer with the United States Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), has agreed to plead guilty to allegedly lying to the FBI on three occasions during the investigation into the kickback scheme. Mariano, 53, of Arlington, Virginia, has been charged by way of a criminal complaint with receiving a bribe as a public official.

United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Richard Deslauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Office, today announced the filing of an information and plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Providence, alleging that Spencer knowingly made false statements to the FBI on three occasions between September 2011 and January 2012.

Spencer is also awaiting sentencing on a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 21, 2012.

Anjan Dutta-Gupta, 59, of Roswell, Georgia, founder and president of ASFT, pled guilty in federal court in April 2011 to paying bribes to Ralph Mariano and others to ensure payment and additional funding to existing Naval contracts and work orders for work purportedly to be performed at ASFT. Dutta-Gupta is scheduled to be sentenced on June 21, 2012.

Patrick Nagle, 51, of Marietta, Georgia, a former Senior Vice President and Director of Contracts for ASFT, pled guilty in August 2011 to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit bribery. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9, 2012.

An information is merely an allegation and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew J. Reich, Lee H. Vilker, and Terrence P. Donnelly.