Guilty Plea in Florida Case Shines Light on Murtha Earmark

By Carol D. Leonnig

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 2:28 PM

When an Air Force command in north Florida was looking for cutting-edge communication for troops in Iraq, Rep. Jack Murtha steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors to develop new battlefield technologies.

The taxpayer-funded research effort at the Pensacola Air Force base fell apart, however, when investigators found evidence that it was used as a money-skimming operation to improperly pay a series of companies linked to Murtha. A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, which were based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha's home district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped approve the payments.

As prosecutors reveal new details of their criminal probe into the $8 million earmark that Murtha arranged for the Air Force battlefield communications project, one familiar player is never mentioned by authorities. Many of the companies had hired the lobbying firm of the lawmaker's brother, Robert C. "Kit" Murtha.

Today, one of Kit Murtha's earliest clients has agreed in court filings to tell the government what he did and the crimes he said he saw committed as the lead contractor on the Murtha-orchestrated project. Richard "Rick" Ianieri, former former chief executive of Coherent Systems International, pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks and preparing fraudulent invoices. Ianieri, a Pennsylvania entrepreneur, saw his business explode after hiring Kit Murtha's firm, KSA Consulting.

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