Navy Vet Sentenced for $9M Fraud
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative file photo. Naval Base Ventura County’s Port Hueneme is shown in February 2020. The base was home to the Navy’s Mobile Utilities Support Equipment division involved in the contracting scheme that led to retired sailor Cory Taylor Wright’s three-year federal prison sentence and $9.1 million restitution order. (U.S. Navy photo by Melinda Larson)
A retired Navy sailor was sentenced Tuesday to three years in federal prison after admitting to a yearslong scheme that defrauded the Navy out of more than $9.1 million through rigged bids, false invoices and contracts steered with the help of a Navy insider.
Cory Taylor Wright, 49, of Columbus, Georgia, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr.
The judge also ordered Wright to pay $9,128,515 in restitution, the full amount prosecutors said the Navy lost through the scheme. Wright pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of wire fraud.
Wright served in the Navy from February 1997 until his retirement in May 2017.
For portions of his career, he worked with the Navy’s Mobile Utilities Support Equipment division, known as MUSE, at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California.
MUSE provides technical and logistics support for major power systems, including large generators used by U.S. military operations around the world, including operations in active combat zones.
As Wright approached retirement in late 2016, prosecutors said he and fellow sailor Juan Carlos Aragon created a Georgia company called C&C Power Solutions LLC.
Aragon also worked within MUSE and held supervisory positions that gave him considerable influence over Navy contracts.
According to Wright’s plea agreement, the two men created the company with the understanding that Aragon would eventually become a 50 percent partner after leaving the Navy. In the meantime, prosecutors said Aragon would help steer Navy business toward the company.
Wright admitted paying Aragon thousands of dollars in kickbacks and other benefits in exchange for helping C&C Power Solutions obtain Navy contracts.
Some of those benefits included payments to a sporting club operated by Aragon.
Prosecutors said the manipulation began almost immediately.
To help provide initial funding for the company, Aragon caused contractors to issue payments to C&C Power Solutions for products and services the company had not actually provided.
Once the company was operating, Wright and Aragon began manipulating the bidding process to help their company win subcontracts.
One example involved a Navy task order worth approximately $790,496.
Prosecutors said Wright and Aragon caused multiple fake competing bids to be submitted with prices significantly higher than the price offered by their own company.
That made C&C Power Solutions appear to be the better deal.
Wright also admitted creating fraudulent invoices stating that C&C Power Solutions had completed work and delivered products when it had not fulfilled its contractual obligations.
Those false records were then incorporated into invoices submitted to the Navy, causing the government to issue payments based on false information.
The scheme became even larger beginning in 2017.
Prosecutors said Wright and Aragon worked to position C&C Power Solutions to become MUSE’s next prime contractor, an arrangement they knew could be worth tens of millions of dollars.
To obtain the contract, the men submitted fabricated materials, including a fraudulent past performance questionnaire.
They also concealed Aragon’s financial interest in the company and his direct involvement in the successful proposal.
The Navy awarded C&C Power Solutions the prime contract in July 2019.
According to prosecutors, Wright continued submitting false documents and invoices until the Navy terminated three task orders in late 2022 and early 2023.
The overall scheme ran from December 2016 until August 2022.
Federal prosecutors calculated the Navy’s total loss at approximately $9,128,515.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors argued that the conduct was not a single mistake but a sustained effort to undermine the federal contracting process.
Aragon has also been sentenced.
He pleaded guilty in April to bribery of a public official and received 12 months and one day in federal prison on Aug. 25.
He was ordered to pay $97,960 in restitution.
The Defense Criminal Investigative Service and Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case.
For Wright, the final punishment is three years in federal prison and an order requiring him to repay more than $9.1 million.
(Source: OAF Nation)
