The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996               TAG: 9608260035
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   41 lines

3 GUILTY OF TRYING TO RIG BIDS FOR NAVY CONTRACT THEY EACH FACE UP TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON AND A $250,000 FINE FOR EACH COUNT.

The owner of a Portsmouth company and two former employees of a Petersburg janitorial service were convicted Friday in federal court of perjury and conspiracy to defraud for rigging the bids for a 1995 Navy contract.

Wilbert H. Lawrence Sr., Lea Ann Fipps, and James Edward Jones will be sentenced separately in November and December.

The government charged that when Fipps and Jones worked for Alrod Enterprises of Petersburg, they fed inside information to Lawrence Landscaping and Maintenance Service of Portsmouth.

Alrod already held the previous contract for the job, providing janitorial services for the Atlantic Fleet headquarters in Norfolk. The information Fipps and Jones gave Lawrence was the expenses Alrod incurred under its contract.

``Knowing what Alrod had actually spent in performing the existing contract gave Lawrence Landscaping a big advantage in preparing its bid proposal for the new contract,'' said Alan M. Salsbury, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Using that information, Salsbury said, Lawrence was able to undercut his competitor. In May 1995, Lawrence Landscaping received the $1.35 million Navy contract.

About the same time, federal prosecutors said, Fipps and Jones got jobs with Lawrence Landscaping.

The three also were charged with perjury for lying to a grand jury investigating the matter.

The government presented evidence showing Fipps and Jones corresponded with Lawrence during the bid process, and a former Lawrence employee testified as a government witness with immunity from prosecution.

Fipps and Jones said they were talking to Lawrence about a hog farming venture.

All three face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

Each defendant was convicted of one count of conspiracy and one count of perjury, and Fipps was convicted on an additional count of perjury.

KEYWORDS: VERDICT PERJURY CONSPIRACY by CNB