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Federal complaint details corruption, slush funds
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Michael Holiday of Silver Spring, and Richard Hudec, of Naples, Fla., spent the better part of a decade bribing a federal official, Dessie Nelson, to win more than $180 million in federal contracts for their company Holiday International Security Inc., later named USProtect, according to their guilty pleas filed last fall.
During that time, court records show, Hudec steadily climbed the social ladder, first buying 2154 Canna Way, now valued at $1.25 million, according to Florida property records, in the plush Grey Oaks Country Club, home to three of Florida’s finest golf courses.
A year later, Hudec bought 5699 Sago Court, also in Naples, a luxury, 3,576-square-foot home with a three-car garage now on sale for $1.39 million. A video of the home posted on YouTube shows sprawling floor space, high ceilings and a screened-in porch with a swimming pool and view of a lake at the edge of the backyard.
Meanwhile, Holiday struggled as his personal life took a downturn. In 2004 he was arrested in a child-pornography sting and he started ratting out Nelson and Hudec, wearing wires for meetings with the two and helping federal agents build the tax fraud and bribery case.
But Hudec wasn’t done. He also dropped $62,000 on a 20-foot, custom-built flat-bottomed fishing boat in 2005. And then there’s the $6.9 million still sitting in a bank account through which millions repeatedly passed as he and Holiday splurged with federal cash.
Multiple times they won federal contracts overseen by Nelson when they weren’t the lowest bidder. In 2000, Holiday International’s bid for a General Services Administration contract was nearly $10 million more than the lowest bid.
Holiday and Nelson are facing up to 20 years in prison, and Hudec is facing up to five years and a $250,000 fine.
fklopott@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
9:36 PM MST on Thu., Mar. 27, 2008 re: "Federal complaint details corruption, slush funds"
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Examiner Reader said:
What happens to the thousands of employees that was working for US Protect? We currently holds checks that was given to us on March 13,2008, these checks cannot be cash or deposited. This doesn't included the hours of work we provided to US PROCTECT following the bad checks. They roughly 2,000 or more employees waiting to see what happens, however no one seems to know. US Protect provided equipment to those that work for them i.e 9mm pistol. Every employee reported to work on time, provided the work that the contract stated in a professional manner, all we want is what we earned. We have questions with no answer. IS US Protect filing for bankrupcy? If so what chapter will they fill up and what happens to us. Please Respond for us all.
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