Tennessee Corporation and Employees Sentenced for Bribery

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced that Herschell Becker, John Becker a/k/a Jack Becker, and ADA Station Communication, Inc. were sentenced in federal court yesterday by U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason, for bribing a public official. 

Herschell Becker, 49, of Grandview, Tennessee, was sentenced to four years in prison, three years supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $150,000.  Jack Becker, 54, of Crossville, Tennessee, was sentenced to two years in prison, three years supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $30,000.  ADA Station Communication, Inc. was sentenced to five years’ probation with a special condition that the company fund and implement an Ethics and Compliance Program including hiring an independent third-party auditor, and ordered to pay a fine of $1 million.

On Aug. 27, 2015, ADA Station Communication, Inc. and Herschell Becker pled guilty to three counts of bribing a public official, and on Sept. 3, 2015, a federal jury convicted Jack Becker of the same conduct.  The offenses occurred in June and August 2014.

ADA Station Communication, Inc. is a telecommunications company based in Crossville, Tennessee, which specializes in providing turnkey structured cabling infrastructures including analysis, design, engineering, installation, and maintenance of voice, video and data networks.  Herschell Becker has been the Vice President and 50 percent owner of ADA Station Communication since 1995.  Jack Becker, Herschell Becker’s brother, has been an employee of ADA Station Communication since approximately 2003. 

According to court documents and trial testimony, ADA Station Communication was awarded subcontracts to install and upgrade fiber optic cables on Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson (JBER) during 2014 and 2015.  On June 18, 2014, Herschell Becker and Jack Becker offered a United States Air Force official $10,000 to accept their deficient work as complete.  The Air Force official promptly reported the bribe to law enforcement.  Between   Aug. 22 and 28, 2014, the Beckers offered and ultimately delivered a $5,000 bribe to the Air Force official to accept their most recent round of deficient work.  On Aug. 28, 2014, Herschell Becker texted the Air Force official that if he could help them win the bid for the upcoming work next year, it would be well worth his while.  The court concluded that the loss intended to be caused by the bribery was $850,000.   

In sentencing the defendants, Judge Gleason pointed out the need to deter others from committing bribery.  Judge Gleason noted that when things go wrong, “you don’t try to bribe officials.”

U.S. Attorney Loeffler commended the actions of the Air Force official and investigators.  She noted that “corruption in public contracting and public works will not be tolerated at any level.”  This case was investigated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Yvonne Lamoureux.