O’Keefe Media Group Exposes MASSIVE $100 BILLION Federal Contracting Scam — Minority-Owned Firm Admits to Breaking Federal Law, Securing $100M+ in No-Bid Contracts While Outsourcing 80% of the Work
Within two minutes of sitting down with Melayne at a restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, she volunteered the entire scheme – no prompting, no hesitation. She told us she was the Director of Contracts for ATI Government Solutions. Then she dropped the real bombshell:
“Because we’re Native American-owned, we’re heavily favored for government contracts.” “There’s no bidding war.” Said Cromwell
She explained how ATI uses its tribal status to lock down multi-million dollar no-bid contracts, then passes off the majority of the work to subcontractors-firms that would never qualify on their own. Meanwhile, ATI keeps the lion’s share of the cash. Cromwell revealed to our undercover journalist;
“So, a lot of our subcontractors bid on contracts that were perfect in their industry, but because they weren’t Native American, they wouldn’t win it,” she said. “So we bid on it for them, they become our sub, and it’s an automatic win because you’re Native American status. There’s no bidding war.”
Under the 8(a) system, meant to empower disadvantaged businesses, “pass-through” contractors such as ATI serve as paper fronts, taking much of the money off the top while doing little or none of the work. Cromwell admitted the company performs only 20% of its multi-million-dollar no-bid federal contracts, subcontracting out the remaining 80% – a textbook case of a “pass-through” scheme.
“Correct. Yeah. They’re doing most of the work. But you want to really stay on, make sure they’re on time.”
“So, we do about 20% of the work.”
“You don’t want to share that,” – Cromwell added.
In short, ATI secures the contracts, gets the money, acts as a passthrough and it’s the tax payer who gets screwed over.
On paper, ATI is owned by the Susanville Indian Rancheria, a federally recognized native american tribal entity, in northern california.
Arian confirmed to us that if they were to appear as the owners of our company it would make it easier to obtain government contracts, and goes on to claim that we may need to relinquish 51% of the ownership to them.
OMG Undercover Journalist: “So really, it’s really just coming up with a number that you would want in order to appear to be the owner of our company. So we’ll discuss what percentage you would get when we come to the signing of the contract.”
Arian: “Some of that is, will be determined by the 8(a) corporation, So we may have to be like 51%”
Melayne confirms that ATI is abiding by this 51% tribal ownership…on paper.
“51% On paper. Correct. as long as it’s on paper. That you’re 51%, you’re good to go.” Said Cromwell.
ATI may be 51% tribally owned by the Susanville Indian Rancheria ON PAPER, But Melayne revealed to us that ATI was founded in collaboration with the Rancheria by two caucasian DC executives; Firmadge Crutchfeld and Scott Deutschman. And that they manage all of ATI’s operations.
https://youtu.be/B_CtRCLaSbY
https://okeefemediagroup.com/breaking-100-billion-federal-contracting-scam-8a-firm-admits-to-violating-federal-law-using-minority-owned-status-as-a-front-to-obtain-100m-no-bid-government-contracts-while-outsourcing-80-of/