GEORGIA
A man was charged with allegedly paying bribes to officials at a Georgia military base to land lucrative freight hauling contracts from the base, officials said today.
The former agent for a large national trucking company was indicted on one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official and three counts of bribery of a public official, according to authorities.
Officials allege that Ivan Dwight Brannan, 60, of Jupiter, Florida, paid bribes to officials at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.
From 1999 to 2013, officials said Brannan worked as a broker for a national trucking company that delivers both commercial and military freight. According to the indictment, he was paid a commission for each delivery that he arranged.
According to the allegations in the indictment, from 2006 to 2012, Brannan provided cash and other items of value to Mitchell Potts, a former Traffic Office Supervisor for the Defense Logistics Agency at the base to be awarded the contracts.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service are investigating this case, officials said.
The indictment also alleges that Brannan directed truck driver David Nelson to provide cash to both Potts and Jeffrey Philpot, another official in the Logistics Base’s Traffic Office at the military base to ensure that the trucking company continued to receive the base’s business.
According to the indictment, over the course of the conspiracy Nelson paid at least $120,000 in bribes to Potts and Philpot at Brannan’s behest, officials said.
In October 2014, Philpot, Nelson and Potts each plead guilty to one count of bribery of a public official. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29, officials said.
Brannan’s is presumed innocent until proven guilty.