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Defense contractor suspended over kick' ks Page 1 of I post-gazette.coM BUSINESS Defense contractor suspended over kickbacks Thursday, January 07. 2010 By Jos Mandak, The Assc. iated Press PITTSBURGH - A defense contractor with ties to Rep. John Murtha has been suspended again from bidding on government contracts, this time for paying more than $200,000 in kickbacks to another contractor turned government witness. Kuchera Defense Systems Inc., of Windber, was suspended Dec. 22 for allegedly paying off Richard Ianieri. Ianieri is awaiting sentencing Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Fla., after pleading guilty in July to fraud stemming from a research contract at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Kuchera's attorney, Dennis McGlynn, said Kuchera was fighting the suspension and that it is based on information the Navy had in August - when the Navy previously took Kuchera off the Excluded Parties List System, a black book of contractors. suspended from government work. Kuchera was first suspended in April for overcharging the Navy and other ethical violations, but McGlynn said the company resolved those problems to the Navy's satisfaction. Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Victor Chen confirmed that, but said the new suspension was based on separate circumstances: kickbacks Kuchera paid to Coherent Systems International, a company co-founded by Ianieri. Kuchera Defense Systems and Coherent have been awarded more than $50 million apiece in defense work in the last decade, according to www.fedspending.org, a Web site on federal contracting. In July, Ianieri testified about getting the kickbacks to steer $650,000 worth of work to Kuchera from an $8.2 million who applied such pressure.. office refuses to say whether the congressman sponsored the earmark. The criminal charges against Ianieri were first filed in Pittsburgh, where the U.S. Attorney's Office has acknowledged an. investigation stemming from a January raid of Kuchera's offices. Spokeswoman Margaret Philbin said today that federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh had no comment on that investigation or the latest suspension. A spokesman for Murtha also declined to comment. "This is an issue between Kuchera Defense and the U.S. Navy. It does not involve our office," Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said. "Money Q&A" and "Company Town" are featured exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details. First published on January 7. 2010 at 2:35 pm 46A-pg-77(z3 b70 1/8/2.010 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10007/1026526-28.stm