Kevin Leondi Busted for $150K Bribery Scheme at Army Bases

Kevin Leondi, 58, of Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania, is going away for five years after pleading guilty to a brutal bribery and kickback scheme that poisoned Army contracting projects at Picatinny Arsenal and Joint Base McGuire-Dix Lakehurst. The former U.S. Army Contracting Command New Jersey (ACC-NJ) employee took more than $150,000 in bribes, all while wearing the uniform of public trust and selling it out for personal gain.

Leondi exploited his position from December 2010 through August 2015, steering task orders and favorable treatment to contractors who paid him off. He didn’t take cash in paper bags—he got fancy. Leondi bought vehicles and equipment from conspirators at cut-rate prices, sold them gear at inflated rates, and even had a contractor foot the bill for renovations on his East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, property. The bribes were laundered through fake transactions, but the greed was real.

The corruption ran deep. Leondi conspired to funnel at least $48,000 in corporate kickbacks from George Grassie—a Pennsylvania-based subcontractor—to James Conway, a regional project manager at “Construction Company No. 1,” the prime contractor at the bases. In return, Conway handed Grassie subcontracts and special treatment on federal jobs. The payoff? Cash to cover Conway’s mortgage and free construction work on his home—paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Grassie pleaded guilty in February 2017 to conspiracy and providing unlawful kickbacks. Conway copped to accepting those kickbacks and a separate wire fraud charge back in August 2016. Both are still awaiting sentencing, but the noose is tightening. Leondi, however, is already feeling the weight of justice—60 months behind bars, three years of supervised release, and a $25,000 fine slapped on by U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court.

This wasn’t some back-alley shake-down. This was a calculated, years-long betrayal of duty at two high-security military installations. The FBI, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and U.S. Army Major Procurement Fraud Unit spent years peeling back the layers of deception. Their work, led by Special Agents Gregory W. Ehrie, Leigh-Alistair Barzey, and Larry Scott Moreland, exposed a rot that threatened the integrity of federal contracting.

Now, thanks to Senior Trial Counsel Leslie Faye Schwartz and Mark J. McCarren of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division, the books are closing on Kevin Leondi. His name joins the long list of public servants who traded their badge for a bag of dirty money—and paid the price.