A Climax, Ga., man was sentenced Wednesday to federal prison for using his position with the U.S. Defense Department to receive nearly $100,000 in bribes from a military contractor based in Afghanistan.
Desi DeAndre Wade, 40, was sentenced to 1 year 8 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Wade was also ordered to pay a fine of $4,000. Wade pleaded guilty on Dec. 21, 2011.
Wade was a Defense Department employee assigned to Kabul, Afghanistan, as chief of fire and emergency services, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Yates and court records.
Last July, the Defense Department's criminal investigative unit in Kabul received information that Wade was using his position to improperly direct department contracts to certain bidders in return for personal gain, Yates said in a statement.
Wade allegedly influenced an Afghan-based contractor to make $4,000 in bribe payments to him in return for guarantees of continued work. Last August, Wade accepted the $4,000 bribe -- supplied by the Defense Department's investigative unit -- from an informant.
Wade then offered to give the informant figures for bids on a second Defense contract, valued at about $4.5 million, so that the informant's company could submit the lowest bid and get the contract.
At the time, the informant and Wade agreed on a payment of about $125,000 and to meet again in Atlanta during the week of Aug. 22, where they would both be attending the Fire Rescue International Conference, Yates said.
On Aug. 23, the informant, now in Atlanta and working at the direction of the FBI, met with Wade. After negotiations, the two agreed on a $95,000 payment to Wade, and the suspect accepted the cash in a hotel room. He left the room and was arrested by FBI agents.
After his arrest, Wade admitted accepting the $4,000 and $95,000 bribes and for requesting the payments to direct Defense Department contracts to the informant's company.
“When a corrupt contractor like this defendant demands a bribe, he builds that cost into the bid -- meaning that, in the end, the taxpayer bears the expense of the corrupt contractor’s greed," Yates said.
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