ASFT Executive to Plead Guilty to Navy Kickback Scheme Charges

Another high-ranking executive who oversaw defense contracts at the now defunct Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow (ASFT) has agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, according to a statement released by the office of United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha on Thursday afternoon. 

Patrick Nagle, 50, of Marietta, GA, is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on Aug. 18, before Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond, the announcement stated.

According to Neronha's office, at ASFT Nagle held the position as senior vice president and also served as the company's director of contracts.

The company had operated based out of offices in Middletown and in Roswell, GA. ASFT closed in February after federal investigators seized company assets as part of its multimillion dollar investigation into allegations of a Navy kickback scheme.

According to an Information and Plea Agreement filed with the U.S. District Court in Providence, Nagle was responsible for the processing and payment of invoices submitted to ASFT. It is alleged that from 1999 through June 2010, the owner of ADQ Associates and then C&S Technology allegedly submitted invoices to Nagle that were false and inflated. Nagle allegedly made payment on these invoices, knowing that the work represented on the invoices had largely not been performed.

It is also alleged that the payments were made to funnel money to Ralph M. Mariano, a civilian program manager and senior systems engineer with the United States Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Newport and Washington, D.C., and individuals associated with Mariano.

Mariano and co-defendant , of Roswell, GA, who founded ASFT and served as president until February, were charged in a criminal complaint in February 2010 in connection with the alleged kickback scheme that involved approximately $10 million of U.S. Navy  funds. It is alleged that Mariano and Dutta-Gupta participated in a kickback and bribery scheme in which Dutta-Gupta funneled millions to Mariano, Mariano’s relatives, and Mariano’s associates in return for Mariano’s role in the funding of Naval contracts to ASFT.

Dutta-Gupta pleaded guilty in April 2011 in federal court in Providence to one count of bribery of a public official. Dutta-Gupta is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9 by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi. Ralph Mariano is awaiting trial.

The ASFT case has since sparked a nationwide probe into the U.S. Navy's handling and procedures involving defense industry contracts. As a result, the federal government also has stripped contracting authority away from the Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Newport.

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew J. Reich, Lee H. Vilker and Dulce Donovan. This matter is an ongoing, joint investigation being conducted by a team of agents from the DCIS Boston Resident Agency, Northeast Field Office; NCIS, Northeast Field Office; the FBI Providence Resident Agency; and the IRS-CID office in Rhode Island.