Posted 10/01/2004 05:49:00 PM by Douglas

Guess who isn't going to be Boeing's employee of the year this year? This person.

A former Air Force official was sentenced to nine months in prison Friday after admitting that she helped Boeing Co. obtain an inflated price on a $23 billion contract while she sought an executive job at the company.

Druyun, 56, of Vienna, Va., pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to violate conflict-of-interest rules by negotiating with Boeing for a job while overseeing Pentagon consideration of a $23 billion deal to provide 100 refueling-tanker planes. She was hired by Boeing and then fired 10 months later for what the company called unethical conduct.

"She did this as a parting gift to Boeing and to ingratiate herself into Boeing," said federal prosecutor Robert Wiechering.

But she later failed a lie-detector test and conceded that her conflict produced substantive benefits for Boeing, prosecutors said. She also admitted altered journals to cover up her story.

I guess my first question is. . . how stupid are these people? Invariably in Druyun and Sears' dealings the phrase "no one will ever know" must have come up, and my question is. . . how!?! How did they ever think they were going to get away with this? I know it's probably much less nuanced once it reaches the papers, but the scam seems pretty straight forward to me. Inflated prices for a government contract. How could anyone ever find out, right? Well, it gets better.

In court documents, Druyun admitted providing assistance to Boeing on other contracts as well. Among them were a $4 billion contract to provide upgrades to the Air Force's C-130 fleet. She admitted that Boeing gained an advantage because they were helping her daughter's boyfriend get a job, and that Boeing might not have received the contract on a level playing field.

She also said she helped Boeing obtain an inflated deal on a $100 million NATO AWACS contract in 2002, at the same time she successfully intervened to keep Boeing from firing her daughter, who worked for the company, for poor performance.

So, not only is she securing herself a kooshy position at Boeing, but she's also landing one for her daughter's boyfriend and keeping her daughter from being fired for poor performance? Man, how hard up is Boeing, exactly, if this is what they have to stoop to?

But what's really amazing about all this is that it passes the smell test of any executive, much less those of a company the size of Boeing. Think about it: you're an executive with a large corporation, and a government employee says they'll cook the books to fatten your bottom line with a government contract if you line up an executive position for them and don't fire their children that are already working for you. Why would you do it? Why would any corporation willingly take on not only an employee, but an executive that's so quick to cook the books for their own gain?

As DOD always said, if they'll lie for ya, they'll lie to ya.