Retired Naval officer sentenced to prison in bribery scheme

NORFOLK

A Navy lieutenant commander, passed over for promotion, came up with another idea to add to his income.

At a welcoming barbecue at Camp Taji in Iraq in the spring of 2007, Frankie Hand Jr. of Chesapeake struck up a conversation with a woman.

The woman, Michelle Adams, told Hand she was a private contractor looking for work. She also said her boyfriend and business partner, Peter Dunn, was currently in Panama, where the couple based their company.

Later, as Hand and Adams became romantically involved, they hatched a plan to get millions of dollars worth of contracts, according to government filings in federal court.

First, Hand became a secret partner in Adams' and Dunn's company, Global Procurement. Then Hand bribed Air Force Master Sgt. Mark R. Carnes, who was involved in awarding construction contracts for the camp. Carnes advised them to start small by reeling him in with watches, alcohol and small amounts of cash.

It worked - until Hand and Adams forced Dunn out of the picture and Carnes was reassigned. The authorities discovered the contract scheme, and all four are now headed to prison.

On Thursday, Hand, 49, was sentenced in federal court to three years in prison and ordered to repay the government $757,525, the total of two contracts he obtained through paying bribes to Carnes.

In early 2007, then-President George W. Bush ordered what's now commonly referred to as "the surge" in Iraq, an effort to rid the country of insurgents by boosting the number of military personnel and attacking their strongholds.

At the time, Camp Taji, in northern Baghdad, was a sprawling military base, home to thousands of military personnel and contractors. With the surge came the need to renovate and expand the base's dining facilities.

After Hand and Carnes agreed to the bribery scheme, Carnes provided Hand, Adams and Dunn key information, including competitors' bids, that enabled them to get the next contract. Carnes also informed his supervisor, who largely did not work on base, that he was unhappy with the current contractor's work in the dining facilities.

After receiving the first contract for just under $300,000, Dunn began transferring thousands of dollars to Carnes from his Panama bank account. Carnes received $17,000 for that first contract. Hand also received kickbacks for his role.

By the end of 2007, Dunn was out, both from the business and from his relationship with Adams. He was in Iraq for only a few months before realizing this.

"Dunn quickly learned of Adams' relationship with Hand and the fact that he was being forced aside," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Krask, who prosecuted the case, wrote in a court filing.

The government awarded a second contract worth $458,000 to Worldwide Procurement, a new company that Adams and Hand secretly set up. In the subsequent months, Adams wired Carnes around $29,000.

Carnes left Iraq after that second contract was awarded. When he got home, the Air Force awarded him the Bronze Star, in part, for providing "timely and intuitive advice to Iraqi and Coalition senior leaders on the operation, maintenance, construction and refurbishment of 15 dining facilities," according to a narrative attached to the award describing his service.

Hand and Adams, through Worldwide Procurement, received an additional 37 contracts in Iraq worth close to $2.8 million, but those appear to have been obtained legitimately. Hand left Iraq in April 2008 and retired three months later.

Carnes pleaded guilty in Norfolk federal court to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. He was sentenced March 24 to 20 months in prison. The Air Force judge advocate general at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida has requested some of his court records, but his status remains unclear.

Dunn pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Adams pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and is scheduled to be sentenced May 31.

Hand pleaded guilty to one count of bribery. At his sentencing Thursday, he apologized and sent a letter to the judge that was not made public. The judge allowed Hand to self-report to prison by May 31.

Hand served in the Navy for nearly 30 years.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com