Navy bribe suspects tied to top RI pols

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The two men charged in a federal corruption case Tuesday and their associates steered nearly $100,000 in donations to top Rhode Island politicians while allegedly cheating the U.S. Navy, a Target 12 review of campaign finance records has discovered.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy also lobbied to secure more than $27 million worth of congressional earmarks for the company at the center of the case, Middletown's Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow, the Target 12 Investigators have found.

Target 12's review shows people associated with the kickback scheme donated $93,850 to local politicians over the past nine years. The bulk of that money went to members of Rhode Island's all-Democratic congressional delegation, who received a combined $78,400.

The contributions were made by the two defendants – Anjan Dutta-Gupta, Advanced Solutions' founder, and Ralph Mariano, a civilian U.S. Navy employee – along with their relatives, whom prosecutors say profited from the scheme, as well as the company's federal political action committee.

• PDF: Read the full criminal complaint

The top congressional recipient was Kennedy, who got $25,300, followed by Senator Reed with $22,460 and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin with $22,190, Federal Election Commission records show.

Reed is a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and Kennedy was on its House counterpart before his retirement. Reed and Langevin both serve on the Armed Services Committee in their respective chambers, as well.

By contrast, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse got just $2,500 from the group. That was even less than newly elected U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, who received $5,950 between August and October of last year.

All the donations and earmark requests were made before the two suspects were charged, and there's no indication the politicians knew of any wrongdoing.

Only Langevin will keep cash

Reed, Whitehouse and Cicilline each told Target 12 they will donate the money linked to the kickback case to charity.

“These are serious criminal charges," Reed said in a statement. "Law enforcement is rightfully pursuing this matter, and we need to get to the bottom of it.”

Whitehouse applaued law enforcement's work in pursuing the Navy case and said he is "confident that justice will be served." Cicilline called the charges "very serious and disturbing."

Unlike his three colleagues, Langevin said he did not plan to return the contributions because they "were accepted in good faith prior to my knowledge of possible wrongdoing," though he echoed Cicilline by describing the allegations as "serious and disturbing."

"At this point, the legal process should be allowed to play out, and I will be monitoring it closely," Langevin said.

Reed has secured a total of $9.2 million worth of earmarks for Advanced Solutions over the years, his spokesman Chip Unurh said Wednesday evening. Congressional records show Kennedy requested a $17 million earmark for the company last year.

Unruh also said a pending $5.5 million earmark request by Reed for the company is "moot" because of the Senate's new moratorium on funding requests for pet projects. Senate Democrats agreed to the moratorium on Feb. 1 under pressure from President Obama and their Republican colleagues.

Members of Congress were not required to formally disclose their earmark requests before 2009, which makes it difficult to track funding for pet projects secured in the years before that. Other members of the delegation did not offer specific details or figures about requests on Advanced Solutions' behalf.

Prosecutors allege Dutta-Gupta, 58, used Advanced Solutions' subcontractors to funnel roughly $10 million to Mariano, 52, and his relatives over more than 10 years as a bribe to help secure more than $120 million worth of Navy contracts.

Dutta-Gupta apparently knew how to get noticed by powerful politicians.

In July 2009, Kennedy and Langevin brought then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Advanced Solutions' Middletown facility, where the powerful San Francisco Democrat and the two congressmen took a tour flanked by Dutta-Gupta. Langevin returned last August and Reed made his own visit there in December 2004, according to the company's website.

Chafee returning donations, too

In addition to their federal contributions, the two defendants and their associates donated $15,450 to a number of politicians at the state level between 2005 and 2010, R.I. Board of Elections records show.

One of them was Gov. Lincoln Chafee. Dutta-Gupta gave Chafee $1,000 on Dec. 1, a month after the independent ex-Republican was elected governor. One of Mariano's associates also gave Chafee $1,000, the maximum allowed, that day.

Chafee will donate the $2,000 to charity, his spokesman Mike Trainor said. "We don't know which ones yet, but we'll be in line with what the other elected officials are doing," he said.

Former Attorney General Patrick Lynch and Charles Fogarty, the Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, also benefitted from the group's largesse.

Lynch received a total of $5,550 from them between August 2008 and May 2010, including $2,500 from Ralph Mariano himself. Lynch dropped out of last year's race for governor in July.

Fogarty, whom Chafee picked to run the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, got $1,750 from Ralph Mariano during his run for governor in 2006. Fogarty visited Advanced Solutions' Middletown facility in August 2006, according to its website.

Others who received donations from individuals mentioned but not charged in the case include Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, Secretary of State Ralph Mollis, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, former General Treasurer Frank Caprio and former House Speaker Bill Murphy.

Dutta-Gupta was arrested Sunday and is set to appear before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond next Tuesday. Mariano appeared in court Monday and was released on $50,000 unsecured bond after surrendering his passport.

Advanced Solutions is headquartered in Roswell, Ga., but most of its workers are at its Middletown office, where it employed more than 100 people as of last year.

tnesi@wpri.com / twhite@wpri.com