A longtime San Diego-area Department of Defense civil engineer pleaded guilty this week to federal charges related to a yearslong bribery scheme in which he helped defense contractors obtain lucrative contracts in exchange for pricey meals, tickets to the World Series and Super Bowl and no-work jobs for family and friends who funneled some of their earnings to him.
James Soriano, 63, itted in his plea agreement to accepting thousands of dollars worth of bribes from two defense contractors and to making false statements on his tax returns. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to forfeit nearly $210,000 to the government and pay $18,722 in restitution to the IRS.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Soriano, who now lives in Las Vegas, is at least the fourth defendant to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the bribery conspiracy. The scheme was centered around San Diego’s Naval Information Warfare Center, which at the time was known as the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, or SPAWAR.
Soriano worked as a civilian engineer at SPAWAR and was a certified contracting officer representative. In that role, he was not able to approve defense contracts himself — that was the job of a contracting officer — but he “had the ability to influence the award of defense contracts,” according to his plea agreement.
“Soriano was supposed to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the contracting officer … and a liaison between the government and the contractor,” his plea agreement states.
After a contract was awarded, Soriano was supposed to monitor and assess the performance of the contractor and approve invoices, among other tasks. Both before and after contracts were awarded, he was responsible for protecting the integrity of the process and ensuring every defense firm had a fair shot at winning contracts.
But according to his plea agreement, Soriano accepted a stream of perks from two favored contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in government deals.
Soriano itted in his plea agreement that he and a colleague accepted thousands of dollars worth of meals, and that he accepted tickets to the 2018 World Series and 2019 Super Bowl, from Virginia-based defense contractor Philip Flores and his company, IntelliPeak Solutions.
Flores and his company, indicted alongside Soriano in November, have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Flores is currently appealing a federal conviction in Georgia after being found guilty in a similar government fraud scheme.
Soriano also itted to similar quid pro quo involving Russell Thurston, a South Carolina resident who was a high-ranking employee at Cambridge International Systems, Inc., a defense firm with its main offices in Virginia and South Carolina. Soriano itted that among the perks he received from Thurston and Cambridge were four tickets to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game in Washington, D.C., and several no-work, no-show jobs and consulting contracts for family and friends.
Thurston, who was indicted alongside Soriano in a separate case in March, has pleaded not guilty. Cambridge International Systems pleaded guilty in April, itting that the firm acted through Thurston to bribe Soriano in exchange for government contracts worth millions of dollars. The company itted that it made a profit of nearly $7.5 million from those contracts.
Dawnell Parker, who worked directly beneath Soriano at SPAWAR, pleaded guilty in October to accepting thousands of dollars worth of meals from Flores in exchange for helping her boss steer contracts to his company.
Liberty Gutierrez, described in court documents as a close family friend of Soriano, pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in 2021, itting that she received $593,000 in salary from three contracting firms for which she did little or no actual work. Soriano itted that he secured those jobs for Gutierrez — as well as similar jobs for other friends and family — and took a cut of her salary each month.
