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Area defense firm denies role in contract scheme

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 8:22 PM Tuesday, March 9, 2010

BEAVERCREEK — Defense contractor Universal Technology Corp. cooperated with a federal investigation that led to a former NASA official’s guilty plea to contract wrongdoing but knew nothing about the fraudulent scheme, the company’s president said Tuesday, March 9.

“We had a clean bill of health,” Pat Adamson said. “We did no wrong in that.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Mississippi requested information from Universal Technology in October 2006 and the company provided records that the government investigator requested, Adamson said. The company checked back with the investigator in March 2007 and was told that the government had all the information it needed from Universal Technology, Adamson said.

The company heard nothing more from the government, Adamson said.

The U.S. attorney for Mississippi said Monday that Liam P. Sarsfield, a former NASA chief deputy engineer in Washington, D.C., controlled a $1.5 million fund and designed contracts that wouldn’t have to be put out for bid. He steered the contracts to where he wanted them to go, including to Mississippi State University and to Universal Technology, federal prosecutors said.

Some of the money ended up in the hands of another NASA official who faces federal criminal charges in Mississippi, government prosecutors said. Sarsfield, 54, pleaded guilty in November to a charge of involvement in acts affecting a personal financial interest. He awaits sentencing June 24 in Gulfport, Miss.

Sarsfield guided a $400,000 study to Universal Technology through a pre-existing Air Force contract, and ultimately was paid more than $184,000 for work he did on the contract, prosecutors said.

Universal Technology did the work under a task order through a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory, providing an assessment of launch systems requirements that was completed in June 2006, Adamson said.

“The work was done. The government signed off on that. We had no idea what he was up to,” Adamson said, referring to Sarsfield.

Sheila Wilbanks, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor in Mississippi, said Tuesday that she had no additional information to provide about the case.

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