Ex-federal official pleads guilty to taking bribe from Hauppauge computer distributor

A former Department of Energy procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Central Islip to accepting nearly $19,000 in bribes from a Hauppauge computer equipment distributor in exchange for awarding the company more than $900,000 in government contracts.

The electrical components sold by M.S. Hi-Tech, Inc. on Route 111 failed in July 2021, prosecutors said, causing a fire at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News.

Jami Anthony, 47, of Hayes, Virginia, who also previously worked as a Small Business Administration program liaison, faces up to 15 years in prison when she is sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields. As part of her guilty plea, Anthony agreed to forfeit approximately $18,800.

“Motivated by greed, Anthony’s actions betrayed the Department of Energy and resulted in the purchase of electronic components that caused major fire damage to a government laboratory,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Corruption undermines the integrity of competitive bidding in the procurement process and will be aggressively prosecuted.”

Robert Jenkins Jr., Anthony's Virginia-based defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.

From December 2017 through December 2020, Michael Montenes, the owner of M.S. Hi-Tech, made four payments, between $500 and $7,200, to Anthony totalling $18,800, prosecutors said.

In exchange, authorities said Anthony awarded the Suffolk company more than $900,000 in contracts for electronic components that MSHT supplied to the DOE’s Virginia laboratory. Those contracts represented 95% of all of MSHT’s sales to the laboratory, officials said.

Nearly two years ago, some of the electronic components that Anthony purchased from MSHT sparked a fire, causing about $1.8 million in repairs and other costs to the department.

“Bribing public officials is terrible behavior," said Teri Donaldson, the inspector general for the Department of Energy. "Taking bribes when working as a public official representing the U.S government is even worse. We simply will not tolerate these betrayals of the public’s trust."

In May, Montenes pleaded guilty to bribing Anthony, agreeing to forfeit approximately $969,000 and to pay the department more than $1.8 million in restitution for the fire repairs. He also faces up to 15 years in prison, officials said.

Montenes founded M.S. Hi-Tech in 1990, according to the company’s website. The business was honored in 2013 by the U.S. Small Business Administration as its subcontractor of the year after Montenes was nominated for the award by officials at Brookhaven National Laboratory, according to news reports at the time.

M.S. Hi-Tech’s clients have included 3M, Fuji Electronics and Samsung, according to its website. It deals primarily in electronic circuit components and memory chips.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.