NORFOLK, Va. – A former contractor for Military Sealift Command was sentenced on May 8 to 87 months for his role in a bribery and fraud conspiracy that resulted in him receiving nearly $3 million in bribes.
Scott Miserendino Sr., 58, of Stafford, was charged in a five-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services mail fraud, one count of bribery, and three counts of honest services mail fraud.
Miserendino is currently serving an eight year prison sentence after being found guilty in another bribery scheme.
According to the new indictment, Miserendino was working for MSC when he and Joseph P. Allen, the owner of a Chesapeake-based government contracting company, conspired in a bribery scheme.
Beginning in 1999, Miserendino allegedly used his position and influence at MSC to assist Allen and his company in obtaining and expanding a commission agreement with a telecommunications company, which sold maritime satellite services to MSC.
For more than a decade, Miserendino allegedly used his influence at MSC to take official acts to benefit the telecommunications company, which through the commission agreement, also benefited Allen and his company.
Among his actions, the indictment alleges that Miserendino advised officials at MSC and on their ships about using the telecommunications company’s services, authorized Allen and his employees to perform services on MSC ships and ensure that the equipment on those ships defaulted to the telecommunications company’s services rather than that of an alternative provider, and facilitated payment to the telecommunications company for the services it rendered to MSC.
Unknown to MSC or the telecommunications company throughout the scheme, Allen paid half of the commission payments from the telecommunications company to Miserendino as bribes. In total, between approximately 1999 and approximately 2014, Allen received more than $6 million from the telecommunications company, and in turn, he paid more than $2.8 million to Miserendino in bribes.
For his role the scheme, Allen, 56, from Panama City, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery on April 19, and is scheduled for sentencing on July 28.
