Former Tinker Official Convicted of Accepting Bribes
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 11, 2013 |
OKLAHOMA CITY—James Lee Loman, 70, of McLoud, Oklahoma, a former item manager at Tinker Air Force Base, was convicted today on charges of 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.
The jury heard 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 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.
Loman could be sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiracy, 15 years for accepting bribes, and five years for being involved in federal contracting while under a personal conflict of interest. He could also be fined up to $250,000 on each count. He could also be ordered to serve three years of supervised release after incarceration. Sentencing will take place in approximately 90 days.
This conviction 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.