Crime
Ex-ICE official charged with accepting bribes
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
October 5, 2008
A former high-ranking U.S. Homeland Security official was charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to get the government to buy nearly $3 million in armored vehicles that ultimately were unable to stop bullets, court documents said.
Because of the safety risks, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been forced to replace dozens of armored sport utility vehicles.
An ICE spokesman did not know whether any personnel were harmed because of the faulty armor. The case remains under investigation by the inspector general.
“Accusations of misconduct, especially those involving public corruption charges, must be investigated thoroughly, and when substantiated, appropriate action must be taken,” said ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel.
Between 2003 and 2007, former ICE official Gerardo Chavez, once the deputy assistant director of international operations in Washington, D.C., steered no-bid government contracts to a Venezuela auto dealership to buy 57 armored sport utility vehicles, according to charging documents filed recently in federal court in Alexandria.
In exchange, $259,000 was to be wired and mailed to bank accounts in Miami, Laredo, Texas, and Palm Desert, Calif., prosecutors said.
The kickback scheme began in 2003 when Chavez was a special agent and attache in Caracas, Venezuela, and he visited the Blincar factory where the SUVs were outfitted with armor, documents said. In requesting the vehicles, Chavez wrote that the dealership was the only company with armored vehicles in their inventory even though he knew that Blincar did not maintain an inventory of armored SUVs.
Chavez continued the scheme after he was promoted to D.C. in January 2006, prosecutors said. In an e-mail to the dealership owner who was paying the bribes, Chavez said he was sending an ICE official to visit the Blincar factory “so that it wouldn’t occur to him to think of another company,” documents said.
Chavez received about $171,000 in kickbacks from the Blincar owner, and had conspired to receive another $87,000 before federal law enforcement officials uncovered the scheme last summer. Chavez used the money to help buy his home in Clifton, Va., and vehicles, including a 2006 Hummer H3.
In March, the FBI conducted a ballistics test on one of the vehicles at Quantico. The Blincar armor failed to stop a 9mm bullet from penetrating the truck, officials said.
Because of the safety risks, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been forced to replace dozens of armored sport utility vehicles.
An ICE spokesman did not know whether any personnel were harmed because of the faulty armor. The case remains under investigation by the inspector general.
“Accusations of misconduct, especially those involving public corruption charges, must be investigated thoroughly, and when substantiated, appropriate action must be taken,” said ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel.
Between 2003 and 2007, former ICE official Gerardo Chavez, once the deputy assistant director of international operations in Washington, D.C., steered no-bid government contracts to a Venezuela auto dealership to buy 57 armored sport utility vehicles, according to charging documents filed recently in federal court in Alexandria.
In exchange, $259,000 was to be wired and mailed to bank accounts in Miami, Laredo, Texas, and Palm Desert, Calif., prosecutors said.
The kickback scheme began in 2003 when Chavez was a special agent and attache in Caracas, Venezuela, and he visited the Blincar factory where the SUVs were outfitted with armor, documents said. In requesting the vehicles, Chavez wrote that the dealership was the only company with armored vehicles in their inventory even though he knew that Blincar did not maintain an inventory of armored SUVs.
Chavez continued the scheme after he was promoted to D.C. in January 2006, prosecutors said. In an e-mail to the dealership owner who was paying the bribes, Chavez said he was sending an ICE official to visit the Blincar factory “so that it wouldn’t occur to him to think of another company,” documents said.
Chavez received about $171,000 in kickbacks from the Blincar owner, and had conspired to receive another $87,000 before federal law enforcement officials uncovered the scheme last summer. Chavez used the money to help buy his home in Clifton, Va., and vehicles, including a 2006 Hummer H3.
In March, the FBI conducted a ballistics test on one of the vehicles at Quantico. The Blincar armor failed to stop a 9mm bullet from penetrating the truck, officials said.
