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Navy range manager pleads guilty to receiving kickbacks while working at Dare County Bombing Range

Posted at 10:18 PM, Oct 28, 2015
and last updated 2015-10-29 05:59:38-04

Dare County, NC – A 79-year-old former Navy range manager is facing prison time and thousands in fines after he pleaded guilty to accepting illegal gratuities while he was working for the Navy at the Dare County Bombing Range.

Officials say Harry C. Mann had worked at the range since 1968. The range, which is southwest of Manteo, provides air warfare training support to the Navy and Marine Corps.

Aviators practice dropping inert bombs and firing live rounds of ammo at targets there.

Part of Mann’s job was to construct and maintain the targets.

Between January 2005 and May 2011, he requisitioned about 16 million dollars in excess government property.

This property included trucks, bulldozers, cranes, trailers and metal connex boxes.

If the Department of Defense was not able to use the property, they had the option to sell it to the public.

Officials say without permission, Mann sold this property to local metal scrappers.

The Navy was first alerted to this activity when inspectors from the North Carolina DMV saw heavy pieces of equipment being transported in the Edenton area.

Documents say Mann was paid around $175,000 in kickbacks for selling several pieces of heavy equipment and aluminum expedition runway matting.

Officials say Mann asked the scrappers to pay him in cash when they were alone so no one would see the transactions.

They say one of the men put a $16, 300 cash payment in a flower pot at Mann’s home.

The scrappers, Rudy Lozano and John Williams, already pleaded guilty to theft of government property.

The maximum penalty Mann could face is two years behind bars, a fine of $250,000 or twice his gain, restitution, one year of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.