Chantilly Company Paid $15 Million in Government Bribes

A Chantilly-based company and its former president Min Jung Cho, pleaded guilty last week to bribing government officials to secure government contracts. Nova Datacom admitted to paying more than $15 million in bribes.   

Nova Datacom's offices were located at 4501 Singer Court in Chantilly.

The developments are the latest in an ongoing investigation of the largest domestic bribery and bid-rigging scheme in the history of federal contracting cases, according to an FBI news release. Overall, participants in the scheme stole more than $30 million in government money through inflated and fictitious invoices.

Cho and her brother, company founder Young "Alex" N. Cho, are two of 15 people so far to accept plea deals in the case. They are cooperating with prosecutors.

Nova Datacom LLC and Cho, 44, of Springfield, each pled guilty Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to conspiracy to defraud the United States. In addition, Nova Datacom pled guilty to three counts of bribery.

“Today’s guilty pleas hold a corporation and its former president criminally accountable for their roles in funneling millions of dollars into a sprawling bribery scheme involving corrupt public officials and compromised government contractors,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr., in the news release. 

“They also reveal that this brazen fraud extended to the Department of the Army, where a corrupt public official exchanged contracts for cash, gambling in Las Vegas, and a $70,000 Lexus. Fifteen individuals have now pled guilty in this ongoing investigation, and today’s guilty plea by Nova Datacom demonstrates our commitment to holding accountable the corporations that benefit from crimes committed by their officers and employees.”

The Washington Post noted that the public official mentioned "is described as a former assistant program manager for a division of the Army that provides information management systems. The suspect, who began working for the government in 1990, had been an Army contracting officer in Seoul before moving to Fairfax Station in 2010 for a posting at Fort Belvoir, prosecutors said. Independent efforts to identify Public Official C, who resigned last April, were unsuccessful."

In 2009 Min Cho was singled out by the Washington Business Journal as one of three Northern Virginia "Women Who Mean Business."

In 2010, Inc. magazine dubbed her among its "Top 10 East Asian Entrepreneurs," with the company showing an 893 percent growth in three years.

She told the magazine she was born in Korea and raised in Argentina, and that her varied childhood inspired her entrepreneurial spirit. "My parents have been a living example of how hard work and determination leads to success," Cho said. "I hope to pass these traits to my daughters." She also told the magazine that "her parents teachings championed education and continued learning," and that it "prepared her to succeed in a male-dominated industry."

The Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan scheduled a status hearing for June 27. No sentencing date was set. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Nova Datacom faces a fine of $39.6 million to $79.2 million. Cho faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison and financial penalties.

As part of the plea agreements, Nova Datacom and Cho have agreed to the entry of a forfeiture money judgment against them in the amount of $6.8 million.

Three other defendants who worked for Nova Datacom are among those who earlier pled guilty to charges. They include Alex N. Cho, also known as Young N. Cho, the brother of Min Jung Cho and the company’s former chief technology officer; Nick Park, a former employee who later opened his own business, Unisource Enterprise Inc. (UEI); and Theodoros Hallas, the company’s former executive vice president of Operations.

Copper River Information Technology announced last year they had purchased the assets of Nova Datacom. The company operates as a Tribal 8(A) corporation, headquartered in Alaska and is listed as being located in the same office building in Chantilly once occupied by Nova Datacom.