(Tribune News Service) — A Fort Bragg employee and Army veteran received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for pushing companies’ maintenance contracts with the government, federal authorities said.
Now, the man is off to prison.
On May 18, Calvin Alfonza Jordan, of Fayetteville, N.C., was sentenced to 42 months in prison for receiving bribes for years while he worked at Fort Bragg, one of the biggest military bases in the world, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He had pleaded guilty to the bribery charges in February.
Jordan’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 19.
The Directorate of Public Works at Fort Bragg is responsible for the maintenance and repair of all facilities on the base, court documents obtained by McClatchy News show.
Prosecutors said Jordan worked as a purchasing or procurement agent for that department in the Operations and Maintenance Division, which is responsible for the maintenance of roofing, electrical and plumbing systems, among others.
Fort Bragg facilities could submit maintenance requests, also referred to as “Demand Maintenance Orders” (DMO) to technicians who would determine if they could perform the repair themselves or if an outside contractor was needed, court documents state.
As part of his job, prosecutors said Jordan was authorized to use a government purchase card to pay contractors for their services or for needed supplies — as long as the cost did not exceed $2,500.
Between September 2011 and August 2019, prosecutors said Jordan accepted cash payments from companies doing business with the government in return for upping the amount of contracts done with them.
Jordan received $200 per DMO submitted by certain companies and individuals during those years, prosecutors said. One of the payors listed in court documents submitted 1,674 DMOs between 2011 and 2019 — and Jordan is accused of receiving $200 for each one of them.
Prosecutors said they estimate Jordan received $773,600 in bribes.
McClatchy News previously reported that Jordan was accused of using the money to make “large purchases” — such as a 2013 BMW Alpina B7, which sold new for close to $130,000 that year, according to Autotrader.
Jordan, an Army veteran, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison time, court records show.
©2022 The Charlotte Observer.
Visit charlotteobserver.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A wooden gavel and block is seen inside the Senate Hart Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
