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Two former senior Pentagon procurement officials have been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for money laundering and accepting gifts of cash and sexual favors from prostitutes from companies seeking business with the federal government.

Robert Neal and Francis Jones were sentenced Dec. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The men, both from Maryland, were convicted in July of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. They were each sentenced to more than 24 years in prison and jointly ordered to pay $1.75 million in restitution.

Neal served as the director of the Pentagon's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization from 1996 to 2001. Jones joined the office in 1999 as Neal's executive assistant.

According to prosecutors, Neal and Jones conspired to extort bribes and gratuities from companies and individuals doing business with their office. The items included $70,000 in cash, Rolex watches, sexual favors from prostitutes, travel expenses, hotel rooms and at least $200,000 in payments to third parties intended for their benefit. They also conspired to embezzle federal funds.

One witness testified that he provided the men with prostitutes at a government conference in the U.S. Virgin Islands in exchange for contracts worth $1.4 million, according to a report published on Morningstar.com, a news and information service on financial markets. Another witness also said he provided prostitutes for the men and paid for a 1997 trip to Las Vegas to see a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, the Web site reported.

"It is the ultimate insult for someone charged with helping minority and disadvantaged businesses to shake them down," said U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty, who prosecuted the case.

Both Neal and Jones said they plan to appeal.

United States of America vs. Robert Lee Neal, Jr. and Francis Delano Jones, Jr., U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (03-CR-35).

Playing Catch-Up

The Energy Department faces a serious backlog of workers' compensation cases, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office.

As of July 2003, Energy had only fully processed roughly 6 percent of 19,000 claims received from contract employees allegedly injured on the job at nuclear weapons laboratories and industrial sites across the country, the report found. The department hadn't started on more than half of the cases. Another 40 percent remained in the initial stages of processing.

Under the 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, Energy can help contract employees exposed to toxic substances apply for state workers' compensation benefits. Workers or their survivors can file cases asking Energy to persuade contract companies to cooperate in state compensation claims. In the past, the department had often intervened in cases on behalf of company management, rather than the contract worker.

The law, which took effect in September 2002, requires Energy to process cases in multiple steps. First, contract employees must submit medical evidence showing that exposure to hazardous substances at work caused their illness. A panel of three doctors then reviews the evidence and decides if exposure to toxic materials was likely to have "caused, contributed to or aggravated" the worker's health problems. Once the physicians give the go-ahead, Energy can intervene in state workers' compensation claims on the employees' behalf.

GAO researchers found that the bottleneck in Energy's case processing typically occurs at the medical review stage. The department has a hard time finding doctors to serve on panels, GAO researchers found, partly because the workload fluctuates, and partly because of a shortage of qualified physicians.

Energy can choose from 100 doctors in a pool available to serve on panels, and has asked the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to appoint an additional 500 physicians to the group. But NIOSH told Energy there are only about 200 physicians who are not already in the pool but qualified to join, the GAO said.

Energy officials have started searching for ways to help the existing pool of doctors operate more efficiently, the report said. The department has suggested allowing one physician to complete an initial review of the cases, for example. Other doctors would only look at the case if the doctor in charge of the first review decided against the contract employee.

Energy Employees Compensation: Case-Processing Bottlenecks Delay Payment of Claims (GAO-04-298T)