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Feds: Nauer responsible for almost $300,000 in bribes

The U.S. Justice Department has calculated that Gustav Nauer is responsible for close to $300,000 in bribes in the federal government’s case against the former American Samoa Department of Education school bus supervisor in the local school bus spare parts scheme.

Prosecutors noted that the calculation on the amount of payments received by the defendant, and the corresponding amount of restitution due from the defendant, was $300,000.

“The Report notes that the government intended to calculate a more precise figure. The government has done so, and the precise figure is $292,569.99,” said prosecutors in their three-day filing.

Nauer is set for sentencing on Mar. 5 at the federal court in Honolulu where he faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge.

Earlier this month federal prosecutors submitted their sentencing statement, which was brief and didn’t provide much detail except to say the government has no objection to the calculation of the sentencing level or sentencing range contained in the draft pre-sentence investigation report dated Apr. 18, 2011.

Nauer, 47, pleaded guilty in January 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery for his participation in the scheme that began in late 2002 involving other DOE employees and a local vendor (The vendor has been identified as Pacific Products).

As part of the scheme, Nauer and other government officials arranged to order "phantom" bus parts that were never received by the government, as well as bus parts at inflated prices, from the vendor. Nauer admitted that — in exchange — he and other government officials were paid approximately $300,000 in bribes from January 2003 until October 2006.

Nauer, whose sentencing has been delayed several times, testified at last month’s trial of former DOE business office manager, Paul Solofa, who was convicted at the federal court in Washington D.C. on one count each of witness tampering and obstruction of justice in connection with the bus spare parts scheme.

Solofa is scheduled to be sentenced Apr. 27 at the federal court in D.C.

A few days after Solofa was convicted, the federal court ordered him to self surrender at the federal detention center in Honolulu to await sentencing. Online records for the federal Bureau of Prisons show that Solofa is currently housed and registered with the federal prison in Honolulu.

What remains unclear at this point is whether the government will file any new charges against Solofa for his role in the cash payments he received during the bus scheme.