Kennebunkport Man Sentenced on Bribery and Money Laundering Charges

PORTLAND, ME—United States Attorney Paula D. Silsby announced that Maurice H. Subilia, Jr., 65, of Kennebunkport, Maine, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Portland by Judge D. Brock Hornby to eight years' imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release in connection with his conviction on bribery and money laundering charges. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $9,238,450 to the United States Department of Defense, including a forfeiture of $1.2 million of his assets. He pled guilty in 2009 to charges that he bribed and conspired to bribe employees of the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Alabama with regard to contracts issued by that agency, and that he conspired to launder funds paid under those contracts.

Subilia was charged in the Northern District of Alabama with the bribery violations, and agreed to the transfer of the case to the District Court in Maine for plea and sentencing. Subilia was charged in the District of Maine with money laundering, and additionally with forfeiture of $1.2 million which represent proceeds of the money laundering offense. The two cases were consolidated and heard together today for sentencing.

Court records reveal in part that around the year 2000, Subilia and two employees of the Missile Defense Command, Michael Cantrell and Douglas Ennis, agreed to a scheme by which Cantrell and Ennis would steer Missile Defense Command funds to Lealagi, Inc. and Sage Technologies, Inc., two companies operated by Subilia. In exchange, Subilia would make payments to the two employees. Between 2001 and 2006, roughly $11 million originating from Missile Defense Command contracts was paid to Lealagi and Sage, who in turn provided items and materials to the Missile Defense Command that had little or no value, or at prices which had been substantially inflated. Lealagi and Sage wired substantial amounts of money overseas. Some of these funds were in turn wired back to the United States, and a portion of those funds was used to make bribe payments to Cantrell and Ennis. Subilia paid in excess of $900,000 to Cantrell under this arrangement.

United States Attorney Silsby praised the joint investigative efforts of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Maine and Alabama, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Department of Commerce as well as the cooperative efforts of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama.