Boeing subcontractor admits contract fraud

ST. LOUIS — A Hacienda Heights man pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Louis on Friday to charges he used inside information from a Boeing employee in a bid to win contracts to produce 16 different military aircraft parts, prosecutors said.

William Boozer, 59, owns Globe Dynamics International Inc. of Santa Ana, which produced precision-machined parts and assembled complex components for Boeing, prosecutors said.

From November 2009 to February 2013, Boozer got Boeing’s procurement officer, Deon Anderson, to provide inside information on prices and competitors’ bids, using the coded term “Isle 5,” short for “price check on aisle five,” prosecutors said.

In exchange, Anderson, 47, of St. Louis, got cash, they said.

Boozer used that information to prepare and submit bids to Boeing, eventually winning seven purchase orders to supply parts worth $1.5 million. The “net benefit” on the orders was $116,339, prosecutors said.

Boozer pleaded guilty to one felony count of wire fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 15.

Anderson and two other company owners — Jeffrey Lavelle, 52, of Mukilteo, Wash.; and Robert Diaz Jr., 54, of Alta Loma, Calif. —also were charged. They have all pleaded not guilty but court documents show all have scheduled to change those pleas June 4.

Patrick writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/McClatchy.