Denver Veterans Affairs Official Charged With Taking Bribes

DENVER, CO – A Denver-based U.S. Veterans Administration official and two business owners were arrested Wednesday as part of an investigation into bribes and bid-rigging at the VA's Colorado Network Contracting Office in Glendale.

VA official Dwane Nevins, 54, of Denver, and business associates Robert Revis, 59, and Anthony Bueno, 43, were indicted by a grand jury for allegedly paying and receiving bribes to manipulate federal contracts between September of 2014 through April of 2016, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Nevins was also charged with trying to extort $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent posing as the owner of a service-disabled-veteran-owned small business.

The indictment alleges that Revis and Bueno, through a partnership with Nevins, created a company called Auxilious allegedly to help service-disabled veteran business owners navigate the VA's federal procurement set-aside system. Prosecutors allege the three conspired to alter and manipulate federal contracts for two medical procurements: A contract for LC bead particle embolization products for a Salt Lake City VA hospital and a contract for other medical products for VA hospitals throughout the region.

Nevins is also charged with creating his own consulting company, Diversified Entrepreneur Network, LLC, as a vehicle for accepting kickbacks and bribes, like accepting $4,500 tuition payments for a "class" on obtaining contracts with the VA.

Revis and Bueno solicited businesses owned by disabled veterans and offered access to Nevins. Nevis agreed to use his knowledge of internal VA processes to help clients of Revis and Bueno fix contracts to fit in internal set-aside rules and help inflate the price of any awarded contracts, the indictment said.

An undercover FBI agent posing as a the owner of a qualified veteran-owned business paid Auxilious $2,500 for a client agreement, the indictment said. The agent later paid Auxilious $15,000 by check in a restaurant parking lot. The undercover agent later paid Nevins $4,500 to "teach a class" on government contracts, in Las Vegas which was described by Bueno as a bribe to Nevins, "so I can ... grease his wheels to shut him up, so he can do what he needs to do."

The indictment says Nevins himself also allegedly tried to shake down the undercover agent in December 2015 for an additional $10,000, circumventing Revis and Bueno. "[T]he train don’t go without me. You know what I mean?" he allegedly told the agent in a phone call. "I’m the engine. I’m the caboose. I’m the engine room." Nevins also allegedly told the undercover FBI agent "this is a business and businessmen need to get paid . . . . so I can have my Christmas, you know what I’m saying?"

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Nevins, Revis and Bueno appeared in U.S. District Court in Denver on Sept. 19, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty released the three on personal recognizance bonds.

Image via Shutterstock

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