Former Military Sealift Command Contractor Charged with Bribery and Fraud

A former contractor at the Military Sealift Command (MSC) was indicted for his role in a bribery and fraud conspiracy from approximately 1999 to 2014, in which he allegedly received almost $3 million dollars in bribes. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia made the announcement.

Scott B. Miserendino Sr., 58, formerly of Stafford, Virginia, was charged in a five-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services mail fraud, one count of bribery and three counts of honest services mail fraud. Miserendino’s arraignment will be scheduled at a later date.

According to allegations in the indictment, Miserendino was a government contractor at MSC, an entity of the U.S. Department of the Navy that provided support and specialized services to the Navy and other U.S. military forces. The indictment alleges that Miserendino and Joseph P. Allen, the owner of a government contracting company, conspired to use Miserendino’s position at MSC to enrich themselves through bribery.

Specifically, beginning in 1999, Miserendino allegedly used his position and influence at MSC to assist Allen and his company in obtaining and expanding a commission agreement with a telecommunications company, which sold maritime satellite services to MSC, according to the indictment. For more than a decade, Miserendino allegedly used his influence at MSC to take official acts to benefit the telecommunications company, which through the commission agreement, also benefited Allen and his company. Among his actions, the indictment alleges that Miserendino: advised officials at MSC and on their ships about using the telecommunications company’s services; authorized Allen and his employees to perform services on MSC ships and ensure that the equipment on those ships defaulted to the telecommunications company’s services rather than that of an alternative provider; and facilitated payment to the telecommunications company for the services it rendered to MSC. Unknown to MSC or the telecommunications company, throughout the scheme, Allen paid half of the commissions he received from the telecommunications company to Miserendino as bribes, according to allegations in the indictment.

For his role in the scheme, Allen, 56, of Panama City, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery on April 19, 2017, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard, in Norfolk, Virginia. Sentencing is scheduled for July 28, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen, in Norfolk.

The charges and allegations contained in an indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The Norfolk offices of the FBI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Sean F. Mulryne and Molly Gaston of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen W. Haynie of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.