A former agent for a national trucking company has pleaded guilty to bribing officials at the Marine Corps logistics base in Albany, Georgia, in order to obtain lucrative freight-hauling business.
Ivan Dwight Brannan, 60, of Jupiter, Florida, entered a plea of guilty in U.S. District Court in Albany to one count of bribery of a public official, the Department of Justice said in a statement Feb. 3. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Brannan admitted that from 2006 to 20012 he provided cash and other items of value to Mitchell Potts, a former traffic office supervisor for the Defense Logistics Agency at the Albany base, to ensure that his trucking company client was awarded millions of dollars of business.
According to Justice officials, Brannan also admitted that he directed David Nelson, a truck driver, to provide cash and other items of value to Potts and Jeffrey Philpot, another official in the DLA traffic office. Justice officials say that from 2006 to 2012 Brannan and Nelson paid at least $120,000 in bribes.
Potts and Philpot previously pleaded guilty to one count each of bribery of a public official. According to DOJ, Potts has since been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, with Philpot ordered to serve seven years in prison. Nelson pleaded guilty Oct. 7, 2014, to one count of bribery of a public official and is awaiting sentencing, DOJ officials say.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Trial Attorney John Keller of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Dasher of the Middle District of Georgia prosecuted the case.
