Washington While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post in the Air Force last year, Charles Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews.
For two months, Riechers held the title of senior technical adviser and received about $13,400 a month at Commonwealth Research Institute, a nonprofit in Johnstown, Pa., according to his résumé.
But during that time, he actually worked for Sue Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, on projects that had nothing to do with CRI, he said.
Riechers’ job highlights the Pentagon’s ties with CRI and its corporate parent, which has in recent years received hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts from the military and more than $100 million in earmarks from lawmakers.
Commonwealth and parent Concurrent Technologies are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as tax-exempt charities, even though their primary work is for the Pentagon and other government agencies. In a recent report, Concurrent said it was among the Defense Department’s top 200 contractors, with a focus on intelligence, surveillance, force readiness and advanced materials.
IRS rules let charitable organizations engage in a range of activities, including services for the federal government. But Marcus Owens, former director of the exempt-organizations division at the IRS, said the companies appear to be “providing the sorts of services that are commonly provided by business organizations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin and others, and not charities.”
“There are a lot of businesses doing this kind of stuff that are paying taxes,” he said. “It makes me wonder what the charitable purpose is here.”
