Former Army Official Pleads Guilty in Bribery Scheme Over Pentagon Innovation Lab in Hawaii; Army Paid Contractors' Firm $3 Million

A former civilian U.S. Army official pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking part in a bribery and fraud scheme that, according to the Justice Department, corrupted the competition for work on an Army technology innovation lab in the Pacific.

Carlos Duque pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Honolulu to conspiracy, bribery and major fraud, according to a Justice Department release. The department said the plea agreement and a criminal information filed in the case show that from January 2021 to October 2022, Duque conspired with two defense contractors, Brian Kent and Leonard Pick, to accept a bribe of about $1.25 million spread over five years.

What the Bribery Scheme Involved

In return for the promised payments, the department said, Duque told prime contractors to award subcontracts to Kent and Pick's company and helped them inflate government contracting costs to cover his bribe payments. The release says Duque ultimately received about $55,000 in bribes, while the Army paid more than $3 million to Kent and Pick's company. As part of his plea agreement, Duque agreed to forfeit $55,166.70.

The project at the center of the case is U.S. Army Pacific's Hawaii-Pacific Innovation Campus, which the Justice Department described when it charged Kent and Pick in May as "a hub for testing new technologies for the Department of War." Stars and Stripes, citing the indictment, reported that the Pentagon spent at least $100 million on the campus and that its innovation lab was meant to be a place where defense vendors could showcase and test technologies for possible purchase.

"Fraud that deprives the U.S. military of free and fair competition for government contracts harms us all," Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in the release. U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson for the District of Hawaii said those who obtain military contracts through fraud "will be held accountable."

Duque faces a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, 15 years on the bribery charge and 10 years on the major fraud charge, according to the department. The bribery count also carries disqualification from holding federal office. A judge will decide his sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors, along with any restitution owed to the Department of War. No sentencing date was announced in the release.

The Contractors Still Face Trial

A federal grand jury indicted Kent, 59, of Tampa, and Pick, 62, of Palm Beach Shores, Florida, in May. The Justice Department said at the time that the indictment accuses them of conspiring to bribe an Army employee and inflating contract costs to cover the payments, and that it separately accuses Kent of inflating contract costs to include about $680,000 in payments sent to his personal consulting business.

Hawaii News Now reported that Kent and Pick pleaded not guilty on June 3. Their case, United States v. Brian Kent, et al., No. 26-CR-00047-DKW, is set for trial on May 17, 2027, before Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson, the department said. An indictment is only an allegation, and Kent and Pick are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

The case was brought by the Justice Department's Procurement Collusion Strike Force, with the Antitrust Division's San Francisco office and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii prosecuting. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the General Services Administration's Office of Inspector General assisted in the investigation, according to the release, which also included a statement from the FBI's Honolulu office.

Cover photo: Prince Kuhio Federal Building, Honolulu. Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources: Justice Department, "Former Army Official Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy, Bribery, and Major Fraud Related to Hawaii Defense Contracts" (Oct. 28, 2026): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-army-official-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-bribery-and-major-fraud-related-hawaii-defense ; Justice Department, "Two Defense Contractors Arrested for Bribery and Major Fraud Conspiracy Scheme Affecting Department of War Technology Innovation Contracts" (May 20, 2026): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-defense-contractors-arrested-bribery-and-major-fraud-conspiracy-scheme-affecting ; Stars and Stripes (May 28, 2026): https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2026-05-27/bribery-fraud-charges-army-innovation-hub-21801070.html ; Hawaii News Now (Oct. 23, 2026): https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2026/10/23/ex-army-employee-charged-1m-hawaii-bribery-case/