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Table of Contents

Former Defense Official Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charge

RIVERSIDE, California – Nizar Farhat, a 63-year-old former construction manager, has pleaded guilty to taking tens of thousands of dollars in cash payments from a private contractor to support the contractor’s effort to obtain $6.4 million from the government, the Justice Department announced today.

Farhat, who was based at the United States Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, admitted to receiving $15,000 in cash to help draft Requests for Equitable Adjustment (REAs) submitted by the contractor to the Defense Department, and another $22,000 in cash to recommend that the Navy certify completion of the construction projects and approve the REAs.

According to Farhat’s plea agreement, the meetings took place at hotels in Las Vegas and Palm Springs between December 2015 and October 2017. He met with representatives of the private company, which had a $15 million contract to construct an aircraft hangar and a telecommunications facility on the United States Navy Base Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.

Farhat, who was on assigned temporary duty in Djibouti in 2014 and 2015, urged the Defense Department to approve the majority of the REAs, without disclosing that he had received cash from the company in exchange for his recommendation.

United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal has scheduled an October 4 sentencing hearing, at which time Farhat will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated this matter, and Assistant United States Attorney David T. Ryan and Justice Department Trial Attorney David Recker are prosecuting the case.

Farhat’s guilty plea follows an investigation into his actions as a former construction manager at the United States Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.