Political connections and suspected payoffs influenced the U.S. contract award to the Coppolas.

Evidence

In 1993, the Navy awarded the first of four contracts for the support site to Cristoforo Coppola’s Mirabella. Why it did so is the subject of some dispute. A letter from a Pentagon official to the chairman of Mirabella, Cristoforo’s son Francesco, suggests that Mirabella’s “friends,” the powerful congressmembers Ron Dellums and Tom Foglietta, may have helped win the contract. Others say Coppola paid a politically connected Italian restaurateur in Washington with good ties to the military to secure the deal. (The restaurateur was charged but acquitted of wrongdoing.) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 351

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

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