Raymond F. Williams and his companies agree to pay $4.1 million in fines and restitution.
A local businessman and two of his companies pleaded guilty Wednesday to a scheme to bribe an official at an Air Force base in Georgia.
Raymond F. Williams, 70, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a public official.
He also pleaded guilty on behalf of his companies, U.S. Technology Corp. and U.S. Technology Aerospace Engineering Corp., to a money laundering conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors dismissed the rest of the 85-count indictment against Williams, who remains free on bond.
U.S. District Judge Leslie J. Abrams of the Middle District of Georgia set sentencing for May 24.
Williams faces up to five years in prison and each corporation faces up to five years of probation. The defendants also agreed to pay fines and restitution totaling $4.1 million.
The case had been set for trial next month, but Williams decided at the last minute to cut a deal, said his attorney, Jerome J. Froehlich Jr.
“He was a very successful business man and it was a stupid mistake, but unfortunately you had to pay to do business down there,” Froehlich said.
10-year conspiracy
According to the plea agreement, Williams bribed a Department of Defense official at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia to steer business to Williams’ companies, which are now inactive.
The conspiracy lasted almost 10 years and involved $870,000 in payments to the official, Mark E. Cundiff, and others.
In return, Williams received at least $14.45 million in benefits from Cundiff’s influence over contracts until Cundiff retired in 2014
Sometimes Williams paid Cundiff directly, other times he funneled money through other parties, including Larry A. Toth, owner of LT Associates in Canton, according to the plea agreement.
Toth, 74, denied charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and money laundering and was referred to a pre-trial diversion program.
Toth made a deal to provide information under oath to the prosecution and other defendants, and his charges will be dismissed, said defense attorney Jeffrey Jakmides, who worked with attorney James Haupt on the case.
Cundiff, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators, has yet to be sentenced.
Other case unresolved
Williams, a Stark County native, bought U.S. Technology in 1987 and moved it from Connecticut to Canton in 1992, according to Canton Repository archives.
U.S. Technology made plastic pellets used for blasting paint from aircraft bodies, and U.S. Technology Aerospace Engineering fabricated metal.
U.S. Technology closed its Canton plant and warehouse, at 1446 Tuscarawas St. W, around 2011 but had an office on Munson Street NW in Jackson Township as recently as last year.
A company called GMR Materials Technology took over U.S. Technology's Bolivar plant.
Williams and U.S. Technology are facing a separate federal trial in Missouri in June on charges they conspired to move, without a permit, 9 million pounds of hazardous waste from Mississippi to a facility in Missouri that didn't have a permit to handle the waste.
The waste was a powder left over from blasting paint from airplanes and tanks and often was contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium and lead used in the paint.
Williams and U.S. Technology have denied the charges.
Reach Shane at 330-580-8338 or shane.hoover@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @shooverREP