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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal jury in Utah found the owner of an Arizona business and the business itself guilty of making false claims to the government in order to obtain a $99 million contract.
Whitney McBride, 41, of Queen Creek, Arizona, was found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, major fraud against the United States, and making false statements to federal law enforcement and to the court.
McBride and the company, Odyssey International Inc., were initially accused of fraudulently claiming a special status under the Small Business Administration in order to bid on a contract to work at the Fort Drum military base in New York, according to a Thursday news release from the Utah U.S. Attorney's Office. Prosecutors described McBride as Odyssey's founder and owner.
A superseding indictment from October accused McBride and the company of carrying out a scheme to obtain contracts through the SBA set aside for businesses in "historically underutilized business zones," or HUB zones. Often the areas that qualify as HUB zones include Native American reservations and areas with a closed military base, the news release says.
In order to qualify for HUB zone contracts, businesses must have at least 35% of employees living in the zones and the contracts must be awarded to small businesses. The HUB zone program is meant to award government defense contracts in the hopes of economically stimulating the underutilized areas,...
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