WASHINGTON (AP) – The Army has awarded $80 million in helicopter contracts to Wall Street executive Lynn Tilton even as the Justice Department is investigating whether she played by the rules to win earlier military work.
Tilton is the founder of the private equity firm Patriarch Partners, which owns MD Helicopters of Mesa, Arizona, and dozens of other companies. The Justice Department inquiry is focused on Tilton’s hiring of a former Army officer who allegedly steered millions of dollars in contracts to MD Helicopters while the pair negotiated his future employment.
The Associated Press reported in March that Tilton and Bert Vergez, a retired colonel who ran an Army acquisition office in Huntsville, Alabama, were in unusually close contact for more than a year before Vergez retired from military service in late 2012. Three months later, he was working for Tilton.
Under the terms of the two new deals, MD Helicopters will provide Afghanistan’s air force with armed helicopters. The contracts are underwritten by the Army and buttress President Barack Obama’s plan to shift the security mission to the Afghans from the U.S.-led coalition, which is scheduled to leave at the end of 2014.
The Justice Department is looking into allegations that Vergez provided Tilton with details about upcoming contracts to give her company an advantage over the competition, according to internal company documents obtained by the AP and interviews with people knowledgeable of the investigation but not authorized to discuss the matter.