Ralph Affinito

A new trial was ordered Thursday for former Rockwell International Corp. official Ralph Affinito, whose conviction in a defense contract scheme was voided when mail fraud laws were narrowed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Affinito, of Rolling Hills Estates, was convicted by a Los Angeles federal court jury two years ago of five counts of mail fraud for allegedly channeling $430,000 worth of defense contracts to a machine shop he owned secretly.

A new trial was ordered Thursday for former Rockwell International Corp. official Ralph Affinito, whose conviction in a defense contract scheme was voided when mail fraud laws were narrowed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Affinito, of Rolling Hills Estates, was convicted by a Los Angeles federal court jury two years ago of five counts of mail fraud for allegedly channeling $430,000 worth of defense contracts to a machine shop he owned secretly.

A former Rockwell International purchasing manager was convicted Thursday of funneling $500,000 in Air Force B-1 bomber contracts to a company in which he held a hidden partnership. A federal jury found Ralph Affinito, 46, guilty of five counts of mail fraud as part of an elaborate contracting scheme in which he established an outside machine shop to bid on contracts for the bomber, then secretly diverted the work to firms that had not been approved for government work.

A former Rockwell International purchasing manager was convicted Thursday of funneling $500,000 in Air Force B-1 bomber contracts to a company in which he held a hidden partnership. A federal jury found Ralph Affinito, 46, guilty of five counts of mail fraud as part of an elaborate contracting scheme in which he established an outside machine shop to bid on contracts for the bomber, then secretly diverted the work to firms that had not been approved for government work.

A former Rockwell International supervisor was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to four years in prison for running a sham machine shop that received Rockwell subcontracts for B1-B bomber parts. U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter imposed the sentence and a $12,000 fine on Ralph Affinito, 49, of Rolling Hills Estates. Affinito, a former Rockwell purchasing department supervisor, pleaded guilty in July to three felonies in connection with the scheme.

A former Rockwell International Corp. purchasing supervisor pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles to mail fraud and conspiracy to receive kickbacks in connection with a scheme to defraud the defense contractor on the B-1B bomber program. Ralph Affinito, 49, of Rancho Palos Verdes, pleaded guilty to secretly setting up a sham machine shop in an effort to obtain subcontracts from Rockwell, where he was working as a supervisor in the parts purchasing department in El Segundo.

Nineteen former defense-industry purchasing agents and suppliers involved in subcontracts on a dozen of the nation's most sensitive military projects were indicted on bribery and kickback charges Thursday in Los Angeles as part of a federal crackdown on "widespread and longstanding" defense industry corruption. Describing bribery and kickbacks as "a cancer on the defense industry," U.S. Atty. Robert C.

William Albert Reinke, a high school dropout and convicted felon who received top-secret Pentagon clearance to work on the stealth bomber program, was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for defrauding the government. Reinke, 56, of Brea was also ordered to repay $144,000 that the U.S. attorney's office says he overcharged the government on stealth bomber subcontracts he secured for Los Angeles-based Northrop Corp. "I find it astonishing, almost frightening, that a person of Mr.

U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner was in a tough mood last July as he announced a record number of defense industry fraud indictments in Los Angeles and denounced defense kickbacks and bribery as a "cancer" on the nation. Nineteen former purchasing agents and suppliers involved in subcontracts on some of the nation's most sensitive military projects had been caught in what Bonner described as "the largest, most sweeping investigation ever undertaken" into defense industry fraud.

It was bidding time again at Hughes Aircraft Co., and this time purchasing supervisor Philip Kaiser told a parts supplier that he did not want another European vacation. This time, he wanted a Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta. But the supplier, which had already spent $11,000 sending Kaiser to Europe twice to obtain business from Hughes, balked. As the FBI secretly recorded the conversations, the parts supplier continued to resist demands to pay for the car.

"The law does not define fraud; it needs no definition. It is as old as falsehood and as versatile as human ingenuity," a federal appeals court once suggested in the hope of laying to rest centuries of argument over what it means to dupe a man out of his horse. Laws proscribing all manner of pyramid schemes, lottery devices, tax "savings" plans and miracle cures have passed on and off the books.