Former Air Force Official Guilty in Conflict of Interest A former high-ranking acquisition official for the Air Force pleaded guilty to conspiracy, admitting that she discussed a $250,000-a-year job with Boeing Co. while she was overseeing a proposed aircraft leasing deal with the company. Darleen Druyun, 56, was the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management. She will be sentenced on August 6; she could receive up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Druyun agreed to cooperate with the criminal investigation. The government is also investigating Boeing’s former chief financial officer, Michael Sears, who hired her. Sears has denied any wrongdoing. Druyun wept as she appeared April 20 before Judge T. S. Ellis III in federal court in Alexandria, VA. She apologized for her actions. As part of the plea agreement, the government will not prosecute her daughter, a Boeing employee who served as a go-between during the job negotiations. In court documents, Druyun admitted she discussed a job with Boeing in September and October 2002, while she was representing the Air Force in negotiations over a $20 billion tanker leasing deal with the company. After she retired that November, she went to work in Boeing’s missile defense division, receiving a $50,000 signing bonus and a $250,000 annual salary. She and Sears were fired in November 2003 after she admitted lying to company lawyers about the job negotiations. Boeing’s CEO, Philip Condit, also resigned. The tanker lease deal is on hold while Congress and the Defense Department investigate. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the case should be “an example for others that this department is not going to tolerate people who don’t abide by the rules and don’t adhere to the ethics requirements and to the laws.” He said he has ordered a review of the department’s ethics procedures.