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Pentagon, FBI Probing Air Force Contracts
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Last October, after Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked the Pentagon for details about the arrangement, Riechers was found dead in an apparent suicide. The Defense Department inspector general's office has acknowledged that it is also examining the relationship between the Air Force and CRI.
The current investigation by the FBI and the Pentagon was spurred in part by an internal Air Force review that turned up questions about the relationship between the Air Force and CRI, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Last month, federal investigators began delivering grand jury subpoenas and arranging interviews. Air Force officials were among those receiving subpoenas.
One focus of the investigation is the Air Force office responsible for security, counterintelligence and special program oversight. That office used the CRI contract in fall 2006 to hire help for technical studies and research support, according to contracting documents. Investigators have sought computers, e-mail and contracting records from the office.
Investigators are also examining the role that the Interior Department's National Business Center in Fort Huachuca, Ariz., played in processing the contract. And they are seeking information from current and former employees of CRI and Concurrent, along with Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman subsidiary called Essex, which have served as CRI subcontractors, according to people familiar with the investigation.
CRI is part of a constellation of Concurrent organizations that provide a wide array of services for the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Those services include environmental consulting, management of faith-based initiatives, metalwork research and the training of bomb-sniffing dogs.
CRI describes itself in IRS documents as "a national resource committed to assisting industry and government achieve world-class competitiveness." Documents show it works mainly in the intelligence world. A senior Concurrent official said last year that CRI had 20 employees involved in "very specialized work for the DoD and the intelligence community." A CRI official said last year that eight of those employees were interns or students.
The organization apparently had no revenue for several years. In 2004, it reported $633,000 in revenue. The $45 million contract with the Air Force in 2006 was CRI's biggest to date. The contract called on CRI to support the Air Force, "DoD Service Battle Labs, the National Reconnaissance Office, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency," among other agencies, according to contracting documents.
One person familiar with the investigation said CRI employees did substantial amounts of the work requested by the Air Force.
