LOS ANGELES
Federal authorities have arrested a former Department of Defense 
civilian official on charges that he took $34,000 in illegal cash payments from a private contractor, according to officials.
The money was to support the contractor’s effort to obtain $6.4 million from the government in connection with construction projects on a Navy base in the African nation of Djibouti, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Nizar Farhat, 63, of Palm Desert, who was a former construction manager based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, appeared in federal court Monday.
A judge set his bond at $75,000. The FBI arrested Farhat on Friday by FBI agents in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, where he has been staying in recent months.
Farhat is charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on December 4 that charges him with being a public official receiving an illegal gratuity and being a public official receiving compensation from a private party for government services.
In 2014 and 2015, Farhat was on assigned temporary duty at the United States Navy Base Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, where he oversaw a private company’s $15 million-dollar contract to construct an aircraft hangar and a telecommunications facility.
After the projects were completed, the company submitted to the Defense Department Requests for Equitable Adjustment (REAs) that sought $6.43 million in additional payments.
The indictment alleges that Farhat accepted $20,000 in cash from the company for performing official acts, specifically recommending that the Navy certify completion of the construction projects and pay the additional $6.43 million the company requested in the REAs.
The indictment also alleges that Farhat took another $14,000 in cash from the company as compensation for advising the company and drafting the REAs submitted to the Defense Department.
The vast majority of the REAs remain under review by the Defense Department.
If convicted of both charges, Farhat would face a statutory maximum sentence of seven years in federal prison. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, according to officials.
THE DOJ NOTED:
This matter was investigated by the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David T. Ryan of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section.