All in the Family: Darpa Chief Owed $250,000 by Darpa Contractor

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By Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman March 30, 2011 | 6:33 pm


The Pentagon’s premier research arm isn’t just giving six-figure contracts to a company owned in part by agency director Regina Dugan and her relatives. Turns out the Dugan family firm owes the Darpa chief a quarter-million dollars, too.

Financial ethics records obtained by Danger Room raise the uncomfortable possibility that Darpa money could ultimately wind up in the pocket of its director. And that introduces at least the possibility of the appearance of a conflict of interest at the very top of the legendary Defense Department science-and-technology division.

A Darpa representative insists that Dugan did nothing wrong. But Nick Schwellenbach, director of investigations at the Project on Government Oversight, says that “Dugan should have known better. She should have divested herself from her financial interest in this company.”

Dugan filed a financial report on June 15, 2010, stating that she was owed $250,000 by RedXDefense, an explosives-detection company she co-founded with her father. This “note/loan” had “no schedule of payment or guarantee of repayment.” Six months before Dugan made the official disclosure, Darpa awarded RedXDefense a research contract worth $400,000.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/all-in-the-family-darpa-chief-owed-250000-by-darpa-contractor/


Corruption as usual. Cheney would be proud.