Kennebunkport Man Pleads Guilty to Bribery and Money Laundering Charges

PORTLAND, ME—United States Attorney Paula D. Silsby announced that Maurice H. Subilia, Jr., 64, of Kennebunkport, Maine pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Portland to charges that he bribed and conspired to bribe employees of the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command with regard to contracts issued by that agency. He also pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder funds paid under those contracts to companies Subilia controlled. Subilia faces a possible sentence of up to forty years of imprisonment.

Subilia was charged in the Northern District of Alabama, where the Missile Defense Command is located, with the bribery violations. Subilia also was charged in the District of Maine with money laundering, and additionally with forfeiture of $1.2 million which represent the proceeds of the money laundering offense. In addition, the Maine charges contained a claim for forfeiture of $1.2 million dollars from Subilia as the proceeds of the money laundering offense. The two cases have been consolidated for disposition in the Federal District Court in Maine. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

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 the prices of 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 investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service both in Maine and Alabama.