Ibis Tek co-founders get prison time, fines
BUTLER TWP — Two brothers who co-founded a township-based defense contracting company were sentenced today to prison and fines after pleading guilty earlier this year to a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme against the U.S. government.
Thomas Buckner, 68, was sentenced to 2 years in prison and fined $500,000. John Buckner, 66, was sentenced to two years and fined $300,000. Both sentences were handed down by U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab on Tuesday morning in Pittsburgh.
The Buckners and Harry Kramer, 52, of Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty in May to charges of fraud and tax evasion in connection with the scheme at Ibis Tek, a defense contracting firm that had won a contract building emergency escape window kits for humvees for the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM).
The men admitted that they inflated costs and created a shell company to drive up the price of the Chinese-made components used in the kits. They also admitted that they sold scrap aluminum collected during the manufacturing process and did not credit the money to the government's contract.
Prosecutors said the fraud cost the DOD more than $6 million, according to online court documents. The men had already repaid that money to the government, according to prosecutors, and have paid another $6 million to settle a lawsuit the government filed against them.
According to The Associated Press, Schwab said Thomas Buckner received a harsher sentence because we was more involved in the day-to-day business of Ibis Tek LLC than his brother, who retired from the company in 2007. The Buckners each owned half of Ibis Tek when the crimes occurred. The company was sold in February to new investors who had nothing to do with the scheme.
