From the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore:
A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment charging John Kays, age 42, his wife, Danielle N. Kays, age 41, both of Bel Air, Maryland, and Matthew Barrow, age 42, of Toledo, Ohio, with conspiracy and bribery charges related to contracting at the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), in Harford County, Maryland. The superseding indictment adds Danielle Kays as a defendant, and charges John and Danielle Kays with making false statements on their government ethics forms. The superseding indictment was returned on January 18, 2017, and unsealed today.
The superseding indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Craig, Jr. of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service – Mid-Atlantic Field Office; Special Agent in Charge L. Scott Moreland, Mid-Atlantic Fraud Field Office, Major Procurement Fraud Unit, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command; and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.
In March 2006, the U.S. Army Contracting Command at APG awarded a 10-year, $19.2 billion contract to seven prime contractors to provide technology services to support the integrated engineering, business operations, and logistics needs for the Army. John and Danielle Kays each had leadership positions related to this contract. From September 2006 through April 2011, a series of task orders for services pursuant to the contract were placed.
According to the seven-count superseding indictment, John and Danielle Kays were civilian employees who represented the Army on these types of multi-year contracts. From January 2011 until his resignation from government service in July 2014, John Kays held the position of Deputy Project Manager for Mission Command, in effect the number two position for Mission Command. From June 2009 through June 2012, Danielle Kays was the Deputy Director of the Technical Management Division, and from 2012 until her resignation from government employment in October 2015, Danielle Kays was the Product Director of Common Hardware Systems. Barrow was the President and owner of MJ-6, LLC, a company which he and his wife formed in Ohio in 2008 to obtain military subcontracts. From June 2008 through August 2010, Barrow was also employed as a procurement manager by a glass company in Ohio.
The superseding indictment alleges that from August 2008 to June 2014, John and Danielle Kays agreed to take official actions favorable to Barrow and MJ-6 in return for Barrow paying them a total of approximately $800,000. Specifically, the Kays used their official positions to add MJ–6 as a subcontractor acceptable to the Army, to steer potential employees for government contractors to work for MJ-6, to approve MJ-6 employees to work on various TOs, and to approve the pay rates, status reports, and travel reimbursements for MJ-6 employees. The indictment alleges that the Kays steered subcontracts worth approximately $21 million to MJ-6.
In order to conceal their corrupt relationship Barrow caused the glass company he worked for to purportedly enter into contracts and make payments to Transportation Logistics Services, LLC, a company incorporated by John Kays; and later made payments to the Kays in cash, which Barrow allegedly withdrew from his personal accounts and from MJ-6 accounts. According to the superseding indictment, Barrow withdrew the money in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid bank reporting requirements. To further conceal the scheme, the superseding indictment alleges that John and Danielle Kays made false statements on the government ethics forms that they were required to file by failing to disclose the cash payments received from Barrow. According to the superseding indictment, the Kays used the cash for their personal benefit, including: purchasing two new vehicles; a power boat, jewelry, a pool party at their country club, and to pay credit card bills.
John Kays, Danielle Kays, and Barrow each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy, and a maximum of 15 years in prison for bribery, $250,000 per count in criminal fines or three times the value of whatever the Kays were illegally paid, plus forfeiture of the proceeds of the offense. John and Danielle Kays both face a maximum of five years in prison for each of two counts of making false statements. The court has entered an order restraining assets of the Kays in Harford County including real estate, a Nissan Armada, a 2012 BMW, a 2012 Yamaha power boat and a pair of diamond earrings. An order has also been entered restraining the assets of Barrow in Toledo, including, two pieces of real estate, a 2016 GMC Yukon, 2015 Buick Enclave, a 2011 GMC Yukon Denali, a power boat, a Wave Runner and funds in three bank accounts.
Danielle Kays will have her initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Friday, January 23, 2017, at 11 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge A. David Copperthite. No court appearance has been scheduled yet for John Kays and Matthew Barrow.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
The National Procurement Fraud Task Force was formed in October 2006 to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in government contracting activity for national security and other government programs. The Procurement Fraud Task Force includes the United States Attorneys’ Offices, the FBI, the U.S. Inspectors General community and a number of other federal law enforcement agencies. This case, as well as other cases brought by members of the Task Force, demonstrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to helping ensure the integrity of the government procurement process.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the DCIS, Army Criminal Investigation Command, and FBI for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein praised Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joyce K. McDonald and Harry M. Gruber, who are prosecuting the case.
NotPC says
No pictures; they must be Negroes.
Chuck says
No they are not.
Follow the money says
Nope all Lily, sort of, except for the stains they left on the Army.
RT says
You are a racist idiot for making a statement like that. Ashamed to say I live in a commmunity with someone who can say and think things like that. You are what is wrong with our country
Joe C. says
Donald Trump, making contracting great again!
Chuck says
NIce try but inaccurate, note it says “superseding indictment”. John Kays and Matthew Barrow were initially indicted last year.
Hedwig says
Wow – much more to this story and who is involved. Johns Kays father – a former Brigadier General. All three, including the wife were West Point graduates and the two men were classmates. The treachery of these three to defraud the government is unbelievable. Instead of sweeping this under the rug perhaps the USMA should use this as an example to improve their ethics training for future officers.
Whatever agency keeps finding these self-dealing transactions should get a nice budget increase from President Trump to nail these thieves.
http://www.riceinjuryattorneys.com/west-point-graduates-indicted-bribery-charges/
Jon Thompson says
That site (http://www.riceinjuryattorney.com) has pictures of these guys when they were in school together at West Point.
Bill Myers says
People like this make me so angry because if they did not exist , government workers would not have to take as much mandatory training. Hope they don’t drop the soap.
SoulCrusher says
You all act like your surprised and offended. This is what goes on all the time in all forms of our government. Every aspect, including military, drugs, guns, GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS, etc…. are all accomplished through means of corruption. These guys didn’t do anything that the rest of the government doesn’t do. They just didn’t pay off those who were supposed to get paid. Everyone needs to get realistic. You all think that there is some kind of honor or integrity in the government. The Government is your enemy. Thomas Jefferson even said so a millennia ago. When you accept the truth, you will be set free. When you are free you will start thinking for yourself again.
downgoesfrazier says
You’re either an idiot or have no idea what the vast majority of government workers – federal/state/municipal do. Honestly, this is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read here.
Joe Belair says
You haven’t been reading SoulCrusher’s previous posts if you think this is one of the stupidest ever on the Dagger.
SoulCrusher says
Sorry guys, it’s the truth…. You can like it or don’t like it, but you better learn to love it because its what happens everyday.
SoulCrusher says
If I’m such an idiot, why don’t you read the attached webpage and then recommend. Yes, our military is corrupt as ever and lots of money is being stolen and redirected into the pockets of those who cover up the corruption. So who is the idiot now? http://www.wanttoknow.info/corruptiongovernmentmilitary
SoulCrusher says
Here’s some Naval corruption for you…… http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/6/1/1533092/-If-you-missed-it-the-biggest-military-corruption-scandal-in-decades
SoulCrusher says
Here’s another. I could do this ALL day long. Literally. http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-the-u-s-army-corrupt
Rod J says
There are approximately 1.3 million people in the armed forces. How many of them do you think are corrupt? 1000? That would be .00077%. 5000? That would be .0038%. Since you claim that you “could do this ALL day long. Literally.”, I invite you to see if you can find evidence of a mere .00077% of military corruption.
How many individuals would have to be corrupt for it to constitute “our military” being “as corrupt as ever”? .00077%? .0038%? Do the actions of an extreme minority represent the ethics and values of the vast majority, and the organization they belong to?
“United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the DCIS, Army Criminal Investigation Command…for their work in the investigation”. Do corrupt organizations tend to have departments dedicated to finding and prosecuting corrupt individuals?
SoulCrusher says
None of what you say matters as long as those who hold positions of power, who make decisions regarding funds, who happen to be corrupt. Yes, corrupt organizations have always had departments dedicated to finding and prosecuting corruption individuals. It’s called selective investigations. These departments target individuals whom they have either had differences with or just plain don’t like them. Many times the corrupt individuals are targeted because they get careless and open about their corruption. Now, as far a Rod J. Rosenstein is concerned, how come he hasn’t used his Federal Authority to shut down the illegal and corrupt actions of the Maryland Criminal Justice system. The whole Maryland Criminal Justice system is an organized crime syndicate that allows acts of domestic terrorism and racketeering in policing its citizens. Mr. Rosenstein knows everything I’m saying is true, yet he commends the terrorists on their “good work”. When you realize the state of Maryland is a terrorist state, you have then become enlightened…..
Rod J says
So, if one official in an organization is corrupt, that means the whole organization is corrupt? And departments dedicated to weeding out corruption are corrupt as well?
Mr Rosenstein knows what you say is true? How do you know that, has he told you?
Enlighten me…how many and what kind of terrorist acts has the state of Maryland been responsible for in the past year? How many people have been murdered by their acts of terrorism?
Broken record says
The government is only corrupt because SC was stupid, broke the law, and got caught. Before that no problem.
SoulCrusher says
Hey Broken Record, you’re causing me emotional distress. LOL. I didn’t get caught. I was persecuted. However, don’t change the subject. We are talking about government corruption. Rod J. – all I gotta say is Aaron D. Lowinger.
SoulCrusher says
@ Rod J. – the statute says acts dangerous to human life and does not limit the interpretation to just murder. The phrase “acts dangerous to human life” is clearly up for interpretation and your narrow view is typical of an agent of the state. Any raid where the police are armed is an “act dangerous to human life”, so all raid are terrorist acts without legitimate probable cause. Any illegal or unconstitutional sentence to prison is an “act dangerous to human life” and a terrorist act because you can’t guarantee a persons safety in prison. There are your terrorist acts and they happen on a daily basis……
cyniskeptic says
think the Crush is right this time. the higher up you go the bigger the payoffs get.
Jane says
I wonder how many people know that the courts , including Harford County Circuit Court, all have Dunn & bradstreet numbers? What is the implication of this? Surely, this is not common knowledge.You can easily look it up online.
SoulCrusher says
Why wouldn’t they have D&B numbers? D&B numbers are for reporting credit. Every business entity has a D&B number if they have a credit line. There is no corruption in this. It’s just a number that refers to a credit report from D&B…..
Jane says
http://www.americanlawoftheland.com/announcements/am-i-a-real-judge
Jane says
https://anticorruptionsociety.com/lawfully-yours/corporations-cannot-be-sovereign-governments/
Richard Willing says
SC’s comments sound pretty good to me. The people on this website are always talking about local govt. getting paid. From land deals to raises to businesses arriving, we suspect that something fishy is always going on. From top to bottom there’s bad karma in govt.
Ethical Govt Employee says
I vote for idiot
SoulCrusher says
No one says that YOU, the ethical government employee, that does his job or duty every day is corrupt. Those whom you serve may be not so ethical. When someone say that corruption exists in ALL government, you automatically think that since you work for the government that I mean that YOU are corrupt. This is not the case. If you think that it is the case, then I must ask are you feeling guilty about something? Is there something you would like to tell the Dagger readers? Otherwise, accept the fact that the masters you serve may not be as ethical as yourself. You at least have to accept the fact that the military and other factions of our government have had those in charge of making financial decisions and chose to follow the path of corruption.
#donaldlockhimup says
Schit Don The Con got plans I bet you these scumbags got their masters degree from his fake university #lockhimup #notmypresident
Dr Dilweed says
I know these folks indirectly and I am a retired military and now a contractor. SoulCrusher – you are correct that corruption is bad, but you totally ignored the fact that this is the exception not the rule. In 10 years of contracting I never personally witnessed this sort of behavior, nor during 27 years in uniform. You need to look deeper – the two men were West Point classmates, and the wife of Kays was a year behind them. I am guessing this is not the only time these three worked together to bend the rules to their advantage. This sort of behavior is not tolerated and is not taken lightly.
Harford County Citizen says
So….the Sex Perv….Drug Dealers and Burglar get their mug shots up on Dagger yet if you do white collar crime…your picture is no where to be found….got it!