Naval defense contractor pleads guilty to bribery

PROVIDENCE – Anjan Dutta-Gupta, the founder and president of Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow, pleaded guilty on Thursday to bribing a public official in U.S. District Court in Providence.
Dutta-Gupta, 58, was accused of paying bribes to a civilian program manager and senior systems engineer with the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command to ensure payment and additional funding to existing naval contracts and work orders for work at ASFT.
The kickback scheme netted more than $9 million in naval funds, U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said in a news release. ASFT had offices in Newport and Washington D.C.
Dutta-Gupta is scheduled to for sentencing on Dec. 9 by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi; he faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or three times the value of the bribe payments, whichever is greater.
The contracting agent, Ralph Mariano, a co-defendant in the case is charged with a criminal complaint and is awaiting trial.
Mariano used his position as program manager with the NAVSEA to add millions of dollars to existing ASFT contracts in exchange for regular payments from Dutta-Gupta. The kickback scheme took place from 1996 through January 2011 and at least $8.0 million was paid to Mariano by ASFT, court documents revealed. Additionally, $1.2 million was paid to subcontractors, based on inflated invoice, and funned to SIC, a corporation owned by Dutta-Gupta.
On April 27, the Naval Sea Systems Command stripped Newport’s Naval Underwater Warfare Center of its contracting authority, saying the suspension “was necessary due to lapses in the technical and requirements communities to sufficiently describe work ordered, effectively account for work ordered and received, and to provide proper surveillance and oversight of that work.