Defense Department employee gets 2 years in prison
7/25/2014SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has sentenced a Defense Department supervisor who oversaw construction and service contracts at a Southern California Marine Corps base to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges.
U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia on Friday also ordered Natividad Lara Cervantes to forfeit more than $100,000 he earned from accepting bribes from contractors who sought to win or retain multimillion-dollar government contracts at Camp Pendleton.
Cervantes called himself the “godfather” of Camp Pendleton. He pleaded guilty in January to bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.
He is the third defendant to be sentenced in the case. Two contractors were sentenced to six months and a year prison respectively after pleading guilty to paying bribes to Cervantes.