Two defense contractors charged with bribing Army employee at Hawaii innovation campus

Leonard Pick, 62, of Palm Beach Shores, Florida, and Brian Kent, 59, of Tampa, Florida, were arrested and charged on May 20, 2026, after a federal grand jury in the District of Hawaii unsealed an indictment filed six days earlier on May 14. The charges stem from their alleged roles in corrupting the competitive procurement process for the — a facility built for U.S. Army Pacific Command to test emerging military technologies.

Pick and Kent were not small operators. They ran defense contracting businesses and allegedly used their insider access to a government contract to set up a 📖bribery pipeline that ran for nearly two years.

The indictment alleges that from January 2021 through October 2022, Pick and Kent conspired to bribe an Army employee with . The bribe payments were not paid out of pocket. Instead, the two defendants inflated the costs charged to the government under their contracts, then funneled the markup to the Army employee.

The scheme meant taxpayers didn't just lose the bribe money directly — they paid for it twice: once as the inflated line item on the government invoice, and again in the form of a corrupted contract they received instead of a fairly competed one.

Kent ran a separate fraud track from approximately September 2020 through October 2022. He inflated government contract costs by and routed those funds to his personal consulting business. This second scheme is why Kent faces five charges while Pick faces four — the extra count of major fraud against the United States covers the consulting self-dealing as a distinct act.

📖Bribery of a federal official under 18 U.S.C. § 201 carries a maximum sentence of , plus a fine of either $250,000 or three times the value of the bribe, whichever is greater. Major fraud against the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 1031 — the statute covering contracts over $1 million — carries up to 10 years per count. 📖Wire fraud carries up to 20 years. The 15-year 📖bribery maximum is the stiffest single count the defendants face.

The Hawaii-Pacific Innovation Campus was designed as a hub where the Army could rapidly test and integrate new technologies — cybersecurity tools, data systems, and electronic warfare equipment — for the Pacific theater. Corrupting the procurement for that facility doesn't just waste money. It means the Army may have received technology from a contractor chosen through 📖bribery rather than one with the best qualifications, raising direct questions about the integrity of whatever was built or installed.

The investigation is the latest in a pattern of military contracting fraud in Hawaii. In April 2026, former Air Force Master Sergeant Alan Hayward James pleaded guilty to a nine-year, targeting U.S. Pacific Air Forces IT contracts. James and his co-conspirators rigged bids from at least 2016 through 2025, paying bribes to a federal official they nicknamed the Godfather. The two cases share the same investigative infrastructure — DOJ Antitrust, DCIS, GSA OIG — suggesting prosecutors are methodically working through a network of related corruption.

The 📖Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) — a joint law enforcement effort created by the DOJ Antitrust Division in November 2019 — coordinated the investigation. In its first five years, the PCSF trained more than ; opened more than 140 investigations; and obtained more than 60 guilty pleas and convictions for crimes involving over $560 million in government contracts. The Hawaii case adds to that record.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel W. Glad stated: "When defense contractors obtain government-funded work through 📖bribery and fraud, they rob our military and the American people of the benefits of a fair, competitive procurement process." U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson for the District of Hawaii added that corruption harms honest companies seeking to compete fairly, steals from taxpayers, and erodes faith in government institutions. FBI Special Agent in Charge David Porter of the Honolulu Field Office called the conduct a profound betrayal of the public trust.

Trial Attorneys Nolan Mayther, Andrew Schupanitz, and Kylie McLaughlin, and Senior Litigation Counsel Mikal Condon from the Antitrust Division's San Francisco Office are prosecuting the case.

The DOJ's Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program — announced in July 2025 — offers financial incentives to individuals who report procurement fraud. Whistleblowers whose information leads to a criminal fine or recovery of at least $1 million can receive . The program paid its , signaling that the financial incentive is real and active.