Senior Defense contracting officer, three others, indicted for corruption

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Defense Department on Friday announced that Kevin Marlow, a senior contracting officer at the Defense Information Systems Agency was among four people indicted in a contracting scam.

Thirty-four of 68 counts in the public corruption indictment focused on Marlow, who allegedly had a secret financial interest in Vector Systems Inc., a small firm based in Harrisburg, Pa. Marlow used a government purchase card to award over $11 million in contracts to the company between 1998 and 2002, according to a statement released by the Defense Department.

Also indicted in the scam were Frederick and Stephanie Marlow, relatives of Kevin Marlow, and Vector Systems owner James Kloss, who allegedly paid the Marlows $500,000 in cash and provided other benefits to the family.

According to the company's Web site, it was founded in 1997 and is "a veteran-owned provider of IT services on demand to departments and agencies of the U.S. Government…VSI's core competence is a common-sense, customer-focused approach to IT business."

Calls to the company's Harrisburg office went unanswered Friday.

The criminal investigation was conducted by the northwest field office of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the inspector general at the Defense Information Systems Agency after auditors found irregularities in the contracting paperwork.