Former Tinker Official Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Accepting Bribes

OKLAHOMA CITY—James Lee Loman, 71, of McLoud, Oklahoma, a former item manager at Tinker Air Force Base, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud, accepting bribes, and participating in government contracting under an illegal conflict of interest, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

In July 2013, a federal jury heard evidence that from approximately 2002 to 2006, Loman accepted large cash payments from an individual associated with Daytona Aerospace Inc., of Deerfield Beach, Florida, in exchange for favorable treatment in the U.S. Air Force’s purchasing of aircraft replacement parts. The evidence included numerous faxes that Loman sent from his home in McLoud to the individual in Florida. Some of these faxes calculated his bribe payments based on a percentage of aircraft sales to the air force, beginning at five percent and ending at 10 percent. Other faxes kept track of the amount of bribes due and the amount already paid to him. Still other faxes were “collection letters” that used coded language. Loman drove to Florida on multiple occasions to pick up the cash in increments of approximately $50,000. The faxes showed total cash bribes in the amount of $838,200. The jury unanimously found Loman guilty on all three charges.

Today, Chief Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange sentenced Loman to 30 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The judge explained that the sentence was lower than she would normally have imposed because of Loman’s age and severe health issues. The court ordered Loman to pay $843,200 in restitution to the Department of Defense and has also entered a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $838,200.

This sentence is the result of an investigation by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott E. Williams and Chris M. Stephens.