2
According to the plea agreements of Nelson and Michael Holiday, Nelson, worked in San Francisco,
and was responsible for contracting on behalf of GSA with private companies to provide security
to GSA managed buildings. Former Montgomery County police officer Michael Holiday was the
chief executive officer and owner of Holiday International Security, Inc. (HIS), based in Silver
Spring, Maryland, that provided federal facilities with physical security, primarily through armed
guards. In May of 2003, HIS changed its name to USProtect Corporation.
Between 2000 and 2003, Holiday and other contractors provided Nelson with cash, vacations and
other benefits worth over $100,000, in exchange for her assistance, including the award of three
multi-million dollar contracts to HIS. One contract involved GSA-managed federal buildings in San
Diego and three other counties in southern California. GSA solicited bids for a contract to provide
security services to these federal facilities in November 1999. Although HIS’s bid was almost $10
million higher than the lowest bid received by GSA, Nelson awarded the contract to HIS in May
2000. From 2000 through 2004, GSA paid HIS and USProtect more than $54 million pursuant to
this contract.
In February 2001, GSA solicited bids to provide security to federal facilities in San Francisco and
seven other counties in northern California. Although HIS again did not submit the lowest bid price,
Nelson awarded the contract to HIS in June 2001. From 2001 through the present, GSA paid HIS
and USProtect more than $30 million pursuant to this contract.
In January 2002, HIS submitted a proposal for a contract to provide security to SSA- operated
facilities in Baltimore, Maryland. Nelson sent SSA responses she prepared to a questionnaire
regarding HIS’s performance of its California contracts. Although HIS had experienced problems,
Nelson provided all favorable ratings for HIS. Based in part on this recommendation, SSA awarded
the contract to HIS. From 2002 through the present, SSA paid HIS and USProtect more than $50
million pursuant to this contract.
Nelson admitted that in return for her assistance in obtaining the above contracts, Holiday provided
her with, among other benefits, a shopping bag containing $35,000 in cash and an envelope
containing $10,000 in cash. Holiday also arranged for and paid $7,000 for Nelson’s passage on a
Caribbean cruise.
Nelson admitted that she failed to report the cash and other illicit payments from Holiday and other
contractors as income on her federal individual income tax returns for 2000 through 2003. Nelson
concealed the income by arranging to make cash deposits into her bank accounts in amounts that did
not exceed $10,000, in order to evade federal reporting requirements regarding cash transactions.
Michael B. Holiday, age 51, of Silver Spring, Maryland, was sentenced to four years in prison for
bribery and tax evasion in connection with this scheme and was ordered to pay restitution of
$400,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.
In a related case, Richard S. Hudec, age 44, of Naples, Florida, who was a former chief operating
officer of USProtect, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for tax evasion and for concealing