The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division ("DoJ") announced that David Cruz, a former employee of a contractor that provided operations and maintenance services for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at U.S. military bases in South Korea, pleaded guilty to deleting correspondence that was evidence in a federal investigation and Federal Court for the Western District of Texas accepted a plea of guilty to that offense.
According to information obtained as part of the investigation, David Cruz deleted text messages he exchanged with Hyuk Jin Kwon and Hyun Ki Shin in July 2021, despite being served with a legal notice by the undertaking for which he worked. Kwon and Shin accused of millions of dollars in irregularities in maintenance and repair contracts for the US Army Corps of Engineers. After deleting the messages at Kwon's direction, Cruz attempted to cover up his actions despite being explicitly informed by his employer of the federal investigation.
In the deleted messages, Cruz was found to have discussed with Kwon and Shin plans to obtain fraudulent bids from competitors to fulfill the US Army Corps of Engineers' competitive bidding requirements. Accordingly, Kwon was found to have instructed Cruz not to solicit bids directly from competitors, but instead to contact him. Such efforts were found to be in violation of regulations designed to ensure competition in military procurement.
The violation of destroying records that are evidence in a federal investigation can result in up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
(DoJ – 01.04.2025)
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