Three members of a San Antonio family pleaded guilty Aug. 7, 2023, in a kickback scheme in which they conspired to eliminate competition on contracts for housekeeping and janitorial services at Army hospitals and medical centers, the Justice Department said in a statement. (File)
Three members of a Texas family pleaded guilty this week to rigging a combined $140 million worth of government contracts for janitorial work at Army medical facilities and could face prison sentences, according to the Justice Department and news reports.
Brothers Kenneth and Christopher Flores and their mother, Irma Flores, agreed to pay $3.7 million in restitution as part of the plea agreement they struck with prosecutors Monday, a DOJ statement issued the same day said.
Charges against Antonio Flores Jr., patriarch of the San Antonio-based family, were dropped Monday, the statement said.
Kenneth Flores, 50, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and faces up to five years in prison. Christopher Flores, 54, and Irma Flores, 74, each pleaded guilty to a charge of gratuity paid to a public official, which could bring a sentence of up to two years.
The trio formed a corrupt partnership to funnel bribes to government employees in exchange for inside information that could help them win multimillion-dollar contracts, Jaime Esparza, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in the statement.
The scheme ran from January 2018 to about August 2020 and involved contracts for housekeeping and janitorial services at Army health care facilities in Washington, Hawaii and California, prosecutors said in an indictment filed in April.
Prosecutors said Christopher Flores’ company, Alliance Supply, paid roughly $275,000 to two companies belonging to government employees who could help the Flores family members win these lucrative contracts.
These Army civilian workers, Karisa Waysepappy Kelley and John Jordan “Chip” Mathes, pleaded guilty in February to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, court documents said.
In 2018, Kelley and Mathes served on a government evaluation board that was responsible for evaluating the 10 companies competing for a housekeeping contract at an Army hospital in Hawaii, the indictment said.
They recommended that a company belonging to the Flores family was the only acceptable choice and didn’t disclose their financial interest in them, court documents said.
Kelley also failed to disclose an ongoing romantic relationship with Kenneth Flores, prosecutors said.
Mathes’ company, C&S Consulting, received $216,710 from Christopher Flores’ Alliance Supply from Nov. 15, 2018, until June 25, 2020, the Justice Department statement said Monday.
Kelley’s company, Waysepappy Consulting, received $57,906 from Alliance Supply from Feb. 21, 2019, until July 17, 2020.
Text messages and emails from Kelley and Mathes show that they provided inside information that could help the Flores family, such as the maximum the government was willing to pay, the April indictment said.
Prosecutors built their case on a pair of contracts for janitorial services at Army hospitals, clinics and medical centers worth about $140 million, the San Antonio Express-News reported Monday.
The Flores family is well-connected in its hometown. Antonio Flores was selected the Rey Feo, or “People’s King,” of the city’s annual Fiesta celebration in 1996, the Express-News report said.
Kenneth Flores served as Rey Feo in 2018, the same year his company won one of the contracts that brought the family under federal scrutiny, the newspaper said.
Sentencing for all three defendants is scheduled for Nov. 27.
