APG Research Biologist Pleads Guilty In Bribery Scheme Targeting Contracts

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD — A North East man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bribery relating to a scheme carried out at the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Jason Edmonds, 45, worked for the United States Army as a research biologist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center located at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. The CCDC CB Center was the nation’s principal research and development center for non-medical chemical and biological weapons defense. The CB Center developed technology in the areas of detection, protection and decontamination, according to court documents.

From 2012 to 2019, Edmonds accepted cash and other financial benefits from John Conigliaro, the owner and CEO of EISCO, Inc., in exchange for favorable action on CB Center contracts. For example, in July 2013, Edmonds directed a $300,000 CB Center project to EISCO. Three months later, in October 2013, Conigliaro gave Edmonds $40,000 in cash so that Edmonds could purchase two rental real estate properties. Once Edmonds purchased the rental properties, Conigliaro paid for thousands of dollars of renovations to the rental properties, court documents revealed.

Relative to the cash exchange, Edmonds and Conigliaro executed a promissory note, which was subsequently amended by Edmonds on June 14, 2014. In the amended promissory note, Edmonds credited himself $18,100 against the $40,000 in cash for past projects that Edmonds had directed to EISCO at the CB Center. Edmonds also wrote that Conigliaro would provide him an additional $25,000 in exchange for future projects that Edmonds would direct to EISCO, court documents stated.

Between December 2016 and August 2017, Edmonds directed a series of government projects to EISCO in exchange for a stream of benefits from Conigliaro, including a kitchen remodel at Edmonds’s personal residence, the purchase of a granite countertop, a kitchen sink and new siding to his home, Edmonds stated in court documents.

In June 2020, after federal agents attempted to interview Edmonds and Conigliaro, the co-conspirators met approximately three times to discuss the investigation. During those meetings, Edmonds proposed that he and Conigliaro inform federal investigators that Edmonds had repaid Conigliaro with gold and baseball cards, knowing that it was false.

Edmonds faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for conspiring to commit bribery.