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A second former Schofield Barracks range operations manager accused of accepting bribes in exchange for millions of dollars’ worth of government contracts is expected to plead guilty in U.S. District Court.
Federal prosecutors filed papers in court Wednesday charging Victor Garo with conspiring to commit bribery and unlawfully receiving firearms sent to him from outside Hawaii. The government says a federal contractor gave Garo firearms, jewelry, vehicles, travel expenses and cash for his help in steering defense contracts its way. The contracts were for assisting to maintain U.S. military properties, including clearing vegetation from Schofield’s ranges.
The court has yet to schedule a date for Garo’s guilty pleas.
Garo was supervisory range officer at Schofield from January 2000 until March this year.
When Franklin Raby, another former Schofield range operations manager, pleaded guilty last month in a federal court in Tennessee, prosecutors there said the contractor is REK Associates. The government says REK, which is registered in Virginia but whose principal offices are in Maine, has received at least $19 million in defense contracts for work at Schofield’s ranges.
Raby, 67, a retired Army sergeant major, is facing a maximum five-year prison term at sentencing in August for conspiring to commit bribery and forfeiture of a classic automobile, jewelry and a custom rifle.
Garo faces the same maximum five-year prison term and has agreed to forfeit 12 firearms, a diamond ring worth $2,300 and a motorcycle worth $6,000.
The government says Garo recommended the use of particular contract vehicles he knew would make it more likely that REK would get awarded certain contracts, and deleted files from his computer during the criminal investigation of his actions.
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