Connecticut Man Sentenced For Claiming To Operate Minority, Service-Disabled Veteran Business

BOSTON – A Woodstock, Conn. man was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Worcester for conspiring to defraud the Small Business Administration and other government contractors by falsely representing that his business was a minority and service-disabled veteran-owned and operated business.

Brian Bauman, 38, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Hillman to two years probation with six months to be served in home detention with electronic monitoring, forfeiture of $38,000, and completion of 200 hours of community service, preferably to be performed in a setting working on behalf of veterans. In September 2010, Bauman pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud.

Jones and his co-conspirators submitted false statements to the Small Business Administration and other government agencies, in order to get federal government contract awards that were set aside for or preferentially awarded to disadvantaged minority and service-disabled veteran-owned and operated businesses. The submissions falsely represented that their company was owned and managed by a minority and service-disabled veteran who purportedly managed the daily operations of the business

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Jeffrey Hughes, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Office; Luis A. Hernandez, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations; Michael D. Conner, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, Hartford Fraud Resident Agency; Daniel J. O’Rourke, Assistant Inspector General, U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General, Investigations Division; and Robert L. Panella, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, New York Regional Office, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom of Ortiz’s office.