Florida Man Charged with Bribing Officials at Georgia Military Base

A former agent for a large national trucking company was indicted for paying bribes to officials at the Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) in Albany, Georgia, in order to obtain lucrative freight hauling business from the base.  Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia made the announcement.

Ivan Dwight Brannan, 60, of Jupiter, Florida, is charged by indictment with one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official and three counts of bribery of a public official.

From 1999 to 2013, Brannan worked as a broker for a national trucking company that delivers both commercial and military freight.  According to the indictment, he was paid a commission for each delivery that he arranged.

According to the allegations in the indictment, from 2006 to 2012, Brannan provided cash and other items of value to Mitchell Potts, a former Traffic Office Supervisor for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) at MCLB-Albany, for the purpose of ensuring that Brannan’s trucking company client was awarded business at MCLB-Albany.  The indictment also alleges that Brannan directed truck driver David Nelson to provide cash to both Potts and Jeffrey Philpot, another official in the DLA Traffic Office at MCLB-Albany, to ensure that the trucking company continued to receive MCLB-Albany’s business.  According to the indictment, over the course of the conspiracy Nelson paid at least $120,000 in bribes to Potts and Philpot at Brannan’s behest.  

In October 2014, Philpot, Nelson and Potts each pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a public official.  They are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29, 2015.

The charges and allegations in an indictment are merely accusations.  A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney John Keller of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney K. Alan Dasher of the Middle District of Georgia.