Doylestown man charged in alleged kickbacks

A Doylestown man has been charged by federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh with accepting $200,000 in kickbacks while an officer of a company that was a prime contractor for the United States.

Richard S. Ianieri, former president and chief executive of Coherent Systems International Corp., is accused in a criminal information filed yesterday of soliciting and accepting kickbacks from "'K,' a subcontractor of the United States."

The government alleges that Ianieri took checks as kickbacks - one for $102,832.29 and another for $97,013.56 - which "were provided for the purpose of improperly obtaining and rewarding favorable treatment in connection with "'K's subcontract relating to a government prime contract."

Although the information did not identify "K," the Associated Press has identified "K" as defense contractors Kuchera Industries and related Kuchera Defense Systems in Windber, near Johnstown.

Ianieri could not be reached for comment.

In January, federal agents raided the offices of Kuchera, which was given $8.2 million in federal defense funds in the 2008 budget at the request of Rep. John Murtha (D., Pa.), chairman of the defense appropriations committee, according to published reports.

Kuchera was raided Jan. 22 by officers from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an Internal Revenue Service criminal unit.

In August 2007, Coherent Systems, then of Doylestown, was acquired by Argon ST Inc., in Fairfax Va., for about $20 million in cash and debt assumption. Argon said at the time that Coherent's sales for the previous 12 months were about $29 million.

Coherent developed and tested engineering and software for the defense electronics industry. Customers in 2007 included the U.S. Marine Corp., Air Force, Special Operations Forces, U.S. Navy and nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Argon said.