Johnny Buscema Jr., Bid Rigging, Florida 2023

Florida contractor Johnny Buscema Jr. has pleaded guilty to rigging bids with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

Buscema, a resident of New Port Richey, Florida, has agreed to pay $1,000,000 to resolve allegations that he caused a prime vendor for the DLA to submit fraudulent contract bids to DLA that resulted in Department of Defense customers being overcharged for goods and related services purchased under those contracts.

The United States alleged that, from 2016 to 2023, Buscema conspired with other entities to rig bids for awards on the MRO contracts for the Northeast and Southeast regions of the United States.

Buscema allegedly submitted non-competitive bids, paid other vendors to submit non-competitive bids, and submitted multiple bids from his own two companies on the same solicitations to assist the prime vendor to meet its obligation to obtain bids from two or three vendors and to make one of the bids appear more competitive.

As a result of these alleged schemes, the United States contends it was overcharged for items purchased under the MRO contracts.

“Those who seek to do business with the government are expected to compete fairly and independently to ensure that the government receives an appropriate price,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

Buscema owns S.A.F.E. Structure Designs, which sells safety equipment to government customers, and USA Manufacturing, a general construction company. Both companies provide third-party logistics support, such as product acquisition, receiving, warehousing, transportation, shipping, and returns, to military customers through DLA contracts for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) for the Northeast and Southeast regions of the United States.

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