Government Contracts Monitor

Short Take: Take a Lesson from Macbeth – Greed Does Not Pay

August 3, 2015

An active duty first class sergeant in the Army National Guard official, Jason Rappoccio, has been sentenced to 42-months in prison for taking a $30,000 bribe. That means he was paid approximately $700 for each month he’ll now spend behind bars.

Rappoccio had responsibility for awarding Army National Guard marketing and advertising contracts. Rappoccio accepted the bribe from Tim Bebus, owner of Mil-Team Consulting and Solutions LLC (Mil-Team) in exchange for ensuring that a $3.6 million contract would be awarded to a specific company certified by the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development program. In turn, the 8(a) certified company would sub-contract a portion of the work to Mil-Team.

According to the Department of Justice, Rappoccio also admitted to receiving airline and NFL tickets in exchange for steering prior contracts to Mil-Team and other co-conspirators. Rappoccio is one of eight individuals convicted of similar offenses related to the award of Army National Guard contracts. These convictions, and their relatively steep consequences, should help to ensure the integrity of SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program which is designed to help level the playing field for small, disadvantaged businesses rather than to provide such businesses with inequitable advantages based on dishonesty and favoritism.