March 3, 2010 - SANTA ANA, CA—A Los Angeles man who worked at the Los Angeles Air Force base has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for soliciting and receiving more than $70,000 in kickbacks from contractors to whom he steered work.
Alejandro Rivera, 39, of the Jefferson Park district of Los Angeles, was sentenced yesterday afternoon by United States District Judge Andrew J. Guilford. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Guilford ordered Rivera to pay $38,170 in restitution.
Rivera was sentenced after pleading guilty in December to eight counts of accepting kickbacks and three counts of mail fraud. Rivera admitted receiving kickbacks from an Air Force subcontractor who was an FBI source on four occasions. The source first paid Rivera a kickback of $15,680 in May 2008, after which Rivera counted the money while sitting in the front passenger seat of the source's vehicle, according to court documents. Rivera accepted two $6,000 payments in August 2008, and he was arrested in October 2008 after receiving a kickback of $15,766 from the FBI source. The money for the kickbacks was included in contracts that Rivera caused to be awarded.
Rivera also admitted accepting kickbacks from three other subcontractors. The payments were made after Rivera awarded plumbing, construction and painting contracts at the Air Force base hospital. Rivera admitted taking a total of $73,003 in kickbacks.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
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