Word: intelsat
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Colino found in Intelsat a loosely monitored, trusting organization. He apparently spotted an opportunity in the construction of Intelsat's ostentatious glass-and-steel headquarters building in northwest Washington. Only one-third of the 600,000-sq.-ft. edifice was being built when Colino took office in January 1984. That spring he suggested to Intelsat's 28-member board of governors that the last two phases of the building's construction be consolidated into one. Then, according to court papers, Colino connived with William P. Lipscomb Co., an Arlington, Va., construction firm, promising to award it the new contract...
Lipscomb, it turned out, did not have the promised kickback money in hand. Colino thereupon devised still another ruse, say investigators, whereby Intelsat was charged $1.2 million by Lipscomb to enable the firm to order construction materials far in advance of use. The money was paid out in January 1985, but no materials were ever ordered or delivered. Part of the cash went to a Swiss bank account controlled by Colino...
...spur to Colino's peculation was his authority to spend up to $500,000 without consulting Intelsat's board. In one instance, Colino helped create a contract for sham construction work, broke it into three smaller contracts of less than $500,000 each, and pocketed some of the money himself. In another deal, the Government charged, Colino created a Panamanian consulting company that billed Intelsat for fees; these were in turn siphoned into Colino's Swiss bank account...
...Intelsat began getting suspicious a year ago, when Charles Gerrell, an Arkansas mortgage broker who was later convicted with Colino of conspiracy to commit fraud, demanded payment of a commission for arranging a construction loan. A spot internal audit discovered that no such payment was due. Further auditing by Peat Marwick revealed other oddities. In early December 1986, on his return from a jaunt to Australia, Colino found his eighth-floor office sealed off by armed guards. He was escorted from the building shouting, "I'm taking names! I'm going to kick butts when I get back in power...
...Colino decide to rip off his employer? A former Comsat associate describes Colino as "ambitious and manipulative" and bitter at not advancing more rapidly earlier in his career. An associate in Intelsat speculates that Colino thought he would make the organization "grow so fast they wouldn't miss the money." But they did, and a promising career self-destructed...