Bohemia defense contractor pleads guilty to bribery

The owner of a Bohemia defense contracting company has pleaded guilty to bribing a U.S. Department of Defense official.

Thanomsak Hongthong, 57, of VDH Precision Machining Corp. admitted giving a $10,000 cash bribe to the official in Fort Monmouth, N.J., in an attempt to inflate a VDH defense contract from $1.7 million to $2.5 million.

The $10,000 was a down payment on a promised $100,000 bribe, prosecutors said.

Hongthong, of Shoreham, said Friday through an assistant that he would not comment on the case. He entered his plea Thursday in U.S. District Court in Trenton.

He was arrested after a defense department Criminal Investigative Division sting in which he handed over $10,000 in cash at a Garden State Parkway rest stop. The cash hand-over was recorded by investigators. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said Hongthong contacted the Defense official shortly after VDH got the contract on Nov. 18, 2009, and the two met soon after.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 3 by District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson.

The top sentence for the charge is 15 years in prison and a fine of three times the value of the bribe, or $300,000.

Fishman said Hongthong at first wanted the contract increased by $430,000, then later asked for an $800,000 hike.