GovernmentExecutive.com

Former Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears was sentenced to four months in federal prison and fined $250,000 on Friday for illegally negotiating a job for a top Air Force official at the nation's second-largest defense contractor.

"I know what I did was wrong and I am truly sorry," Sears, 57, said in federal district court in Alexandria, Va.

Sears recruited Darleen Druyun, a top Air Force procurement official--via e-mails and a secret meeting at a Florida airport--to a $250,000-per-year job overseeing Boeing's missile defense contracts.

Druyun was sentenced last fall to nine months in a minimum-security federal prison in Florida. She had negotiated the Boeing job while still working for the Air Force overseeing billion of dollars in Boeing contracts. In court, Druyun admitted to favoring the company in some contract talks in exchange for a job for herself, her daughter and son-in-law.

In court documents filed before the sentencing, federal prosecutors pushed for a six-month sentence for Sears, who had been fired by Boeing in 2003 and pleaded guilty last November. They also questioned whether Boeing's senior executives could have done more to probe the Sears-Druyun relationship before she was hired.

"The senior management of Boeing did not confront the obvious legal and ethical issues presented by these employment negotiations," prosecutors said.

Lawyers for Sears had sought probation, but U.S. District Judge Gerald Lee said prison time was necessary because Sears' actions had damaged the integrity of the Pentagon acquisition system.

Several contractors have lodged protests over work awarded to Boeing during Druyun's tenure at the Pentagon from 1993 to 2002. The Government Accountability Office and the Defense Department's inspector general are looking into contracts she awarded.

On Friday, GAO ordered the Air Force to reopen a competition for some parts of a contract awarded to Boeing to build a small-diameter bomb. The agency found that Druyun had modified parts of the contract to favor Boeing over contractor Lockheed Martin. GAO says the Air Force must reopen the parts of the contract that were modified to subject them to full competition.

GAO officials also said that within the next week, the agency will rule on protests over an award Druyun oversaw to Boeing for modernizing avionics on C-130 aircraft.

COMMENTS

• Want to see a quick end to this? Rather than go after the CFO for a four month prison term, just sentence Boeing. That's right, just take away four months of their earnings and see how quickly you get the attention of the board of directors. You cannot lock up the entire company, but could you imagine what Wall Street would do if a company had no earnings for four months, which would mean no profit, nor dividends for a couple of years. No bonuses to be given. Then the companies would have a real, effective ethics program. Oh, and while I am dreaming, how about if the company is caught up with a violation such as this one, all golden parachutes are instantly gone. Would the executives risk their careers with a corrupt company? GovExec.com reader Posted March 1, 2005 12:55 PM
• These people deserve more than a "Time-Out" at a "Club Fed". They'll do their time with surroundings and situations that are often better than our GIs live with daily. They will then move on in life just as priviledged as ever. American Corporate justice served. Rick Posted February 24, 2005 7:27 AM
• There is something seriously wrong with our legal system. During the nine-year period Druyun may have sent billions of dollars in contracts to Boeing that should have rightfully been awarded to other contractors, yet her sentence is 9-months in a minimum security prison? Sears is fined $250,000 which to most people would seem a considerable sum of money, but he was the Chief Financial Officer at Boeing - what do you suppose his salary was? More than likely the $250,000 is no more than pocket change. Is his 4 months in prison going to turn into another deal like Martha Stewart - perhaps as soon as he's released we'll be able to read his daily journal and learn all about the hardships he had to endure for his poor judgment. If a man goes to the grocery store and steals food to feed his family because he's lost his job and has no income, he spends months and months behind bars - yet, white collar workers whose crimes are far more serious get a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle. Our system of justice is totally unjust. Patricia Johnson Posted February 24, 2005 12:15 AM