Photogrammetrist Indicted For Bribery

A federal grand jury in Omaha indicted Russell Hoffmann on four counts of bribing a public official. Hoffmann, vice president of Surdex, an aerial mapping firm, allegedly bribed an employee of the Omaha office of the Army Corps of Engineers in order to win government contracts to provide aerial mapping to the Corps. The contracts were worth $6 million.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the indictments charge that Hoffmann bribed William Schwening, who was working as a cartographer for the Corps' Omaha office. Schwening, who has already been indicted for his role in the scheme, allegedly accepted gifts from Hoffmann. Those gifts allegedly included golf clubs, a golf trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and a computer. Schwening served on boards that evaluated proposals submitted by private companies interested in doing work for the Corps. Each count could carry a maximum of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.