2 Florida Contractors Charged With Bribing Army Official to Secure Military Technology Contracts

Two Florida defense industry veterans were arrested on May 20 on federal charges alleging that they bribed a U.S. Army employee and defrauded the government to secure military technology contracts at a Pacific innovation hub in Hawaii.

Leonard Pick, 62, of Palm Beach Shores, and Brian Kent, 59, of Tampa, allegedly orchestrated a bribery and major fraud conspiracy that corrupted the competitive procurement process for a Department of War technology innovation lab in the Pacific, the Justice Department said on May 20.

The indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii on May 14 and unsealed on May 20, alleges that the two men conspired from January 2021 to October 2022 to funnel roughly $1.25 million in payments over five years to a U.S. Army employee, artificially inflating government contracting costs to disguise the bribes.

Prosecutors said Kent allegedly further defrauded the government by inflating government contract costs to include approximately $680,000 in payments sent to Kent’s personal consulting business between roughly September 2020 and October 2022.

Both men are charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and major fraud, bribery, major fraud against the United States, and wire fraud. Kent carries an additional major fraud count. They face up to five to 20 years in prison plus fines per charge.

Attorneys for Pick and Kent could not be reached.

“The criminal conduct uncovered in this investigation represents a profound betrayal of the public trust,” FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Honolulu Field Office David Porter said in a statement.

“The defendants used bribery and fraud to obtain significant defense contracts, prioritizing personal profit over national security. Let this serve as a clear warning—the FBI and our federal partners will aggressively pursue and hold accountable anyone who attempts to corrupt government procurement processes for personal gain.”

Pick and Kent’s alleged schemes specifically affected the construction and operation of the U.S. Army Pacific Command’s Hawaii-Pacific Innovation Campus, which was supposed to be a hub for testing new technologies for the Department of War.

The indictment comes one month after a former U.S. Air Force master sergeant pleaded guilty to fraud.

Alan Hayward James, 51, pleaded guilty in April to fraudulently inflating information technology contracts for the U.S. Pacific Air Forces by at least $37 million, using the extra funds to enrich himself, benefit coconspirators, and send bribes to a federal public official.

In November 2024, former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was sentenced to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that involved dozens of U.S. Navy officers. He was also ordered to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy.

According to prosecutors, Francis operated Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia, supplying food, water, and fuel to U.S. Navy vessels during the 2000s and 2010s.

During that time, he bribed Navy officers with beef, concert tickets, expensive cigars, cash, luxury hotel rooms, sex parties, and more in exchange for ignoring Francis’s overcharges for supplying ships and charges for fake services.