DENVER (AP) — A former Veterans Affairs employee in Colorado who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for rigging federal contracts has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison.
Dwane Nevins was sentenced Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to six corruption-related counts. His federal prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Investigators say the 55-year-old took bribes from an undercover FBI agent to manipulate a contract bidding process while working as a small business specialist. He also was accused of arranging with his co-defendants, Robert Revis and Anthony Bueno, to rig contracts in the department’s Colorado network contracting office.
Prosecutors say that after complaining about not being paid by Revis and Bueno for his participation, Nevins used his official position at the VA to extort about $10,000 from the undercover FBI agent, telling the agent, “This is a business and businessmen need to get paid . . . . so I can have my Christmas.”
Bueno was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his role in the scheme. He also was sentenced to more than five years in prison for a separate wire fraud scheme in which he bilked several investors out of more than $1 million.
Revis pleaded guilty to supplementing the salary of a federal official and is set to be sentenced Monday.
