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Ex-Air Force master sergeant pleads guilty in $37M bid-rigging scheme

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by Tolu Talabi - 04/03/26 1:43 PM ET

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by Tolu Talabi - 04/03/26 1:43 PM ET

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A retired Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force on Wednesday pleaded guilty to inflating the cost of information technology contracts for the U.S Pacific Air Forces by at least $37 million to enrich himself and co-conspirators, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Alan Hayward James, 51, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to rig bids in a federal court in Honolulu.

From April 2016 until about April 2025, James and co-conspirators falsely inflated IT contracts for Air Force installations across the Pacific. From at least May 2019 until about October 2022, James directed his co-conspirators on the amounts they should bid to circumvent the bidding process for contracts.

James agreed to pay over $1.4 million in restitution to the Department of Defense.

“Over thirty-seven million dollars — that’s how much the U.S. Air Force overpaid because of the scheme that the defendant admitted to, under oath and in open court,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel Glad of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, in a statement. “The Antitrust Division’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force will detect and prosecute those who rig bids and defraud their government customers.”

James, along with his co-conspirators, channeled bribes to a federal official within the U.S. Pacific Air Forces named “Godfather,” according to court records.

James and his co-conspirators used some of the funds to pay for an all-expenses-paid multi-day stay at a luxury resort on the North Shore of Oahu in 2023. They also disbursed funds to James, his family members, the family of an Air Force civilian employee and other co-conspirators.

A federal district court judge will determine James’s sentence.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy to commit wire fraud is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department. The maximum penalty for bribery is 15 years in prison and a fine of either $250,000 or three times the monetary value of the bribe, often whichever is greater. The maximum penalty for a conspiracy to rig bids is 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

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