Navy Official, Contractors Charged With Bribery Federal prosecutors charged a high-level manager at the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego with masterminding an eight-year bribery and kickback scheme. Gary Alexander, his wife, his alleged mistress and three contractor executives were charged in a 25-count indictment alleging bribery, fraud and other offenses. Not-guilty pleas were entered on behalf of all six in San Diego federal court on July 8. Another contractor executive has pleaded guilty to taking part in the scheme, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Prosecutors said Alexander, 49, was chief of SPAWAR’s Air Surveillance and Reconnaissance Branch and manager of an interagency task force on drug interdiction. According to the indictment, he steered contracts to certain companies in return for several hundred thousand dollars and a huge collection of high-end electronics gear. The indictment alleges the conspiracy lasted from late 1999 until May 2008. The investigation grew out of an anonymous tip to a federal fraud hotline in 2007. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Ciaffa said investigators tapped some defendants’ phones and had them under surveillance when cash changed hands, the Union-Tribune reported. Ciaffa said the investigators also received information from Pamela Banks, who has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to two years in prison. Banks said she received $325,000 in SPAWAR contracts for her home-based business and kicked back 30% of the money to Alexander.