An American contractor has pleaded guilty to destroying evidence related to a federal investigation of bid rigging on contract work at U.S. military bases in South Korea. (Joseph Barron./U.S. Air Force)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — An American contractor has pleaded guilty to destroying evidence related to a federal investigation of bid rigging on contract work at U.S. military bases in South Korea.
David Cruz, 37, pleaded guilty Tuesday to deleting text messages with two South Korean business executives who were charged last month with conspiracy to restrict trade and six counts of wire fraud, according to a Justice Department news release and an indictment March 5 in the U.S. District Court of Western Texas.
Cruz “knowingly destroyed records that were part of an ongoing criminal investigation and has now acknowledged his crime,” FBI Los Angeles Field Office assistant director Akil Davis said in the release Tuesday.
The co-conspirators were identified in the release as Hyuk Jin Kwon and Hyun Ki Shin.
Kwon and Shin were executives at J&J Korea, a South Korean corporation that owned majority shares of J&J Maintenance, an Austin, Texas-based subcontracting firm that did repair and maintenance work for U.S. military hospitals in South Korea, according to the release.
The two executives “exchanged pricing information and bid proposals” with Desca, another South Korean contracting firm, in what was supposed to be a competitive process between 2018 to 2021, according to the indictment.
Cruz, who was aware of the ongoing investigation and instructed by his unidentified employer not to delete his text messages, then attempted to cover his tracks, according to the Justice Department release.
The deleted messages contained information on obtaining additional bids from competitors to fulfill the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ requirements before awarding contract work, according to the Justice Department.
Kwon also instructed Cruz to “contact him instead of requesting bids directly from Kwon’s competitors,” the release said.
“Bid rigging and other acts of fraud against the U.S. Army not only undermine the integrity of critical procurement efforts but also put our soldiers at risk by providing them capabilities and services which do not meet the high standards necessary to maintain peak lethality,” special agent Michael DeFamio of the Army Criminal Investigation Division said in the release.
Cruz faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine, the release said.
