Contractor Admits Bribing GSA Official The former owner of a Maryland security firm has pleaded guilty to bribing a GSA contracting officer with $100,000 in cash and a cruise ticket in return for contracts worth more than $130 million. Michael B. Holiday, 50, of Silver Spring admitted giving the official $35,000 stuffed in a shopping bag and another $10,000 in an envelope, as well as providing a $7,000 cruise ticket, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, MD on Oct. 3. Holiday, a former police officer, owned Holiday International Security, later known as USProtect Corp., which provided armed guards for federal buildings. The U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland said the former GSA official, Dessie Ruth Nelson of Oakland, CA, was charged with accepting more than $100,000 in bribes from Holiday and evading taxes on the payoffs. A former officer of the company, Richard S. Hudec of Naples, FL, was charged with tax evasion and a scheme to conceal material information from federal contracting officials, including his four prior felony convictions. Prosecutors said Hudec’s wife bought the company from Holiday in 2003 and changed its name to USProtect. They said Richard Hudec, serving as chief financial officer or chief operating officer, falsely certified that no principal of the company had a civil judgment for fraud or false statements rendered against him within the three years. The company, under both names, has provided security at 120 installations in 32 states and territories, the U.S. attorney said. Holiday was also charged with tax evasion and possession of child pornography. Sentencing is set for Jan. 23. Court dates for the other defendants had note been set. The case was investigated by the Justice Department’s Procurement Fraud Task Force. The unit, formed last year, includes U.S. attorneys’ offices, the FBI, inspectors general and other federal law enforcement agencies.