Trepp may have had more contracts

Jeff German and J. Patrick Coolican

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, while serving in the U.S. House, helped longtime friend Warren Trepp secure a secret $100 million defense contract, according to court documents filed this week by Trepp's former business partner.

If true, Trepp's dealings with the Defense Department, which have come under federal scrutiny, were far greater than what previously has been reported. The FBI is investigating whether Gibbons as a congressman received unreported gifts from the wealthy defense contractor and campaign contributor.

In court papers filed in Reno, lawyers for the former business partner, software developer Dennis Montgomery, alleged that Gibbons used his congressional position to help Trepp obtain the $100 million contract in January 2006 from the U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., the arm of the military at the forefront of the global war on terrorism.

In a Nov. 1 story reporting the ties between Gibbons and Trepp, The Wall Street Journal said that the largest known contract awarded to Trepp and his software company, eTreppid Technologies LLC, was one for $30 million from the Special Operations Command in 2004.

Both contracts were said to be part of the military's "black budget," money earmarked by Congress that can be handed out without a bidding process and without a full explanation to the public.

Montgomery's claims that Trepp showered Gibbons with cash and other gifts in return for help in landing lucrative defense contracts now are being investigated by the FBI.

Both Trepp and Gibbons have strongly denied the claims and say their relationship outside of Washington is rooted in a friendship that goes back more than two decades.

In the court papers, Montgomery's lawyers said Trepp was able to obtain the $100 million contract because of "specific components" of software developed by Montgomery.

But Montgomery took those components with him when he left eTreppid in mid-January 2006 after a falling out with Trepp, the lawyers said.

In March of last year, the lawyers charged, Trepp, with the help of the Republican Gibbons, persuaded then-U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden to get the FBI to raid Montgomery's Northern Nevada home in search of key software codes.

"In order to obtain the money, they (Trepp and Gibbons) had to deliver Mr. Montgomery's source codes to some of the technology to the Special Operations Command," the lawyers alleged. "Mr. Montgomery had lived through years of lies, deceit and illegal conduct by Trepp and Gibbons, all of which he had reported to a specific government official assigned to work with him.

"That same official knew that Trepp had even threatened the government with sales of the technology to a foreign government if our government didn't pay the $100 million," the documents allege.

The lawyers did not say whether they knew if Trepp had received part or all of the $100 million, but they indicated the FBI raid did not locate the source codes.

Reno attorneys Stephen Peek and Jerry Snyder, who represent Trepp, did not return phone calls Tuesday to comment on Montgomery's claims about the $100 million contract.

Dianne Cornwall, a deputy chief of staff for Gibbons, said the governor did not want to comment at this time, but said his office intended to have a response in the near future.

"We're respectful of the investigation that's being conducted," Cornwall said. "We wish to honor a request for information from our attorneys that will be needed in the investigation, but it's just going to take us a little while to put it together."

The FBI raid occurred in the middle of the heated litigation between Montgomery and Trepp over ownership of the software.

Montgomery also contends that Trepp and Gibbons unlawfully collaborated with Bogden and the FBI to violate Montgomery's constitutional rights so that Trepp could gain an upper hand in the civil litigation - a claim that Trepp, Gibbons and Bogden have strongly denied.

All of the proceedings over the FBI raid are under seal. The court papers filed this week say that Bogden and Paul Pugliese, a Reno assistant U.S. attorney who oversaw the raid, both were fired by the Justice Department on Dec. 7 - just three days after a federal judge held a secret hearing in Reno on the government's conduct in the search for the source codes.

Montgomery's lawyers want the new federal judge just assigned to the case, Philip Pro of Las Vegas, to sign an order turning over all government records that will shed light on the FBI raid, including the results of any internal Justice Department investigations targeting Bogden, as well as records of any secret communications between Bogden and the U.S. attorney's office and Trepp's lawyers.

"Mr, Bogden thrust the power of his office into a patently civil case, violated DOJ (Department of Justice) policy and seized a collection of computer equipment Mr. Montgomery was lawfully in possession of, including 23 hard drives, based on completely concocted false charges," the lawyers wrote.

Bogden, who left the office last week, called Montgomery's latest claims "complete nonsense" and said they bordered on being "scandalous."

The former U.S. attorney said he did not have any contact with Trepp's lawyers and was not influenced at all by Gibbons.