Former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Richard Holman will spend 180 days in home detention and pay a $110,000 fine for bribery, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Holman, 69, of Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery May 7 in federal court in Washington.
According to a Justice Department press release at the time, Holman, who was chief of the USDA's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Coordination, Physical Security Division, accepted numerous items from Communications Resource Inc. and Eric Schneider, one of its executives.
The company's Dun & Bradstreet online profile lists Schneider as vice president of the McLean, Virginia, firm, which generates $31.17 million in sales annually and lists the USDA and several other government agencies as clients.
The company, which provides government and commercial organizations with security, IT and management services to address ''complex security challenges,'' was started in 1994 and is run by President Victoria Johnson, according to its website.
Between July 2013 and December 2015, the company gave Holman Chevrolet Corvette wheels, PGA golf event tickets, concert tickets, meals, alcohol, strip club outings, parking fees, concierge medical services and cash tips to give the company preferential treatment in being awarded some $19 million in government contracts.
The scheme had Communications Resource personnel draft procurement documents in a way that favored granting the firm a multimillion-dollar contract, and then USDA officials would use those documents as if they had prepared them themselves, the DOJ said.
Schneider, also of Virginia, pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy and obstruction for his role in the scheme, and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 4.
Holman, who was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, faced a possible 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the DOJ.
The FBI's Washington Field Office and the Beltsville Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigated the case, with assistance from the inspector general's offices of the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department and the Small Business Administration.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
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