Former Air Force Master Sergeant Alan Hayward James admitted rigging Pacific Air Forces IT contracts so the government overpaid at least $37 million, and bribing a federal official his crew called Godfather.

James, 51, of Texas, pleaded guilty in federal court in Honolulu on April 1, 2026 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to rig bids under the Sherman Act, the Justice Department announced on April 2, 2026. The case is United States v. Alan Hayward James, No. 1:26-cr-00031-SASP, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. Prosecutors filed the information on March 20, 2026.

Fake competition, real money

The scheme ran from at least April 2016 until about April 2025. From at least May 2019 until about October 2022, James told supposedly competing bidders what to bid. In the factual basis of his 38-page plea agreement, James admits that he and his coconspirators “falsely invoiced and the government paid for at least $37 million of material and/or labor that was never provided to the government.”

The conspirators inflated IT contracts, “causing the government to pay a premium of over $37 million on IT contracts serving U.S. Air Force installations across the Pacific,” then split that premium among themselves and their friends and family. The inflated contracts included Cyber Resiliency Experienced Workforce and Data Center Sustainment. The Justice Department says the excess money paid James, his family members, the family of an Air Force civilian employee and other coconspirators. The release names no contractor companies, and neither does this story.

The ledgers and the Godfather

The crew kept ledgers with code names: variations of “Al Capone,” “Godfather” and “Godmother.” Godfather was the nickname of Coconspirator Individual 1, a federal public official in Pacific Air Forces who, the plea agreement says, remained a federal government employee. Salaries the ledgers assigned to Godfather went to members of his family.

The plea agreement gives one example of what the official got: an all-expenses-paid three-day, two-night stay at a luxury resort on the North Shore of Oahu, from about October 8 to 10, 2023. The Justice Department says diverted funds paid for it.

Godfather’s name is not public. No charge against him appears in the records BTP read. Nothing in those records establishes who the Air Force civilian employee is either.

The bill and the discount

James agreed to pay $1,451,656.80 in restitution to the Department of War. Set that against the at least $37 million the government overpaid, and the restitution comes to under four cents on the dollar. BTP argues that number is a clearance-sale price for nine years of rigged bidding on the bases that defend the Pacific.

The other side of the ledger deserves its due. The $37 million is the government’s figure, stated in a plea and a press release, not tested at trial, and the court may set a different number at sentencing. Restitution covers James alone. No sentencing date appears in the records BTP read.

The penalties on paper are steep: up to 20 years and $250,000 for the wire fraud conspiracy; up to 15 years and $250,000 or three times the bribe for bribery; up to 10 years and $1 million under the Sherman Act. The DoD Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Air Force OSI and the GSA Inspector General investigated. The Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii prosecuted.

A second man charged

A second man, Robert Manning, 66, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, bribery and conspiracy to rig bids, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on October 31, 2026. The newspaper reported that Manning allegedly made more than $500,000 between 2018 and 2022, that prosecutors seek forfeiture of $521,920, and that he is scheduled to plead guilty on December 4, 2026. Manning is accused, not convicted, and no plea from him is on record. Nothing BTP read links Manning to Godfather.

James confessed. The man the ledgers called Godfather still has no name in the public record. Who is he?