01.01.70
And they lived corpulent on the taxpayer's dollar. Porsches, real estate, flat-shroud televisions and Cartier watches: The men bought them all with impunity, prosecutors say.
When it became clear that the knit was running out, a second scheme was hatched, authorities say, but it all ended with the original October arrests of four men, including an employee of an Alaska Native corporation and two authority employees, on bribery and money-laundering charges.
Recently unsealed court records, a long-drawn-out indictment and interviews with key players provide a rare window into an unabashed four-year swindle prosecutors have called "one of the most brazen" in federal contracting biography. The crime went undetected by regulators until federal authorities came across it while investigating an uncoupled fraud.
Those charged in the case -- Harold Babb, 60, the contracting conductor at EyakTek, a firm with offices in Dulles, Va., and Anchorage and a subsidiary of the Eyak Corp., the village corporation for Natives from Cordova; Kerry Khan, 53, and Michael Alexander, 55, Army Squadron of Engineers program managers; and Khan's 30-year-old son, Lee -- were arrested Oct. 4. They are in choky pending trial at the request of prosecutors who consider them flight risks. All four have pleaded not shame-faced.
Source: Anchorage Daily News