President of local defense contractor sentenced

Published Nov. 25, 2015
By United States Department of Justice

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Christopher Houston Hensley, 57, of Yukon, was sentenced Nov. 18 to serve one year and one day in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to bribe a public official at the Corpus Christi Army Depot, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Mr. Hensley is the founder and president of Aerochem, Inc., based in Oklahoma City. Aerochem manufactures paint remover ("depaint") products, and it sold these products to Tinker Air Force Base and other military bases for several years.

On June 9, Mr. Hensley was charged by information with conspiracy to bribe a public official at the Corpus Christi Army Depot in Corpus Christi, Texas. The information alleged that Aerochem started selling paint remover products in 2010 to CCAD.

According to the information, Hensley and Soney E. Beesley, a former Aerochem officer, developed a relationship at CCAD with Richard Balderas, Jr., a supervisor of a CCAD division that stripped paint off military helicopter parts. The information alleged that Mr. Hensley and Mr. Beesley provided entertainment, $5,000 in wire transfers, and more than $3,000 in cash to Mr. Balderas in exchange for his favorable treatment of Aerochem's business interests at CCAD.

At a plea hearing on June 23, Mr. Hensley admitted that he approved of Mr. Beesley taking Mr. Balderas out to gentlemen's clubs in Corpus Christi and using Aerochem money to buy a $2,600 football helmet for the football team of Mr. Balderas' son.

United States District Judge Joe Heaton sentenced Mr. Hensley to one year and one day in federal prison. Judge Heaton ruled that Mr. Hensley was responsible for bribery payments by Aerochem to officials at Tinker and CCAD. Judge Heaton ordered Mr. Hensley to pay $24,316.06 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Defense, to forfeit an additional $24,316.06 to the federal government as criminal proceeds, and to pay a fine of $25,000.

Following his term of imprisonment, Mr. Hensley must serve three years of supervised release. Judge Heaton ordered Mr. Hensley to report on Jan. 4 to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons.

Mr. Hensley is the fourth defendant to plead guilty and to be sentenced for an Aerochem bribery scheme involving Tinker and CCAD. In October 2013, Shelvie Raymond Tabb, 51, of Canadian, pleaded guilty to accepting cash from an Aerochem employee in exchange for Mr. Tabb's favorable treatment of Aerochem's business interests in federal contracting. Mr. Tabb is a former depaint section chief at Tinker.

In February 2014, Mr. Beesley, 41, of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty to offering a bribe to a public official. Mr. Beesley admitted at a plea hearing that he made cash payments to Mr. Tabb in exchange for Mr. Tabb's favorable treatment of Aerochem's interests in federal contracts at Tinker.

In June 2014, Mr. Balderas, 47, of Ingleside, Texas, pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe as a public official. At a plea hearing, Mr. Balderas admitted that as a CCAD supervisor, he helped to decide when CCAD needed to replace its paint stripper.

Mr. Balderas further admitted that in 2011 and 2012, he accepted cash from Mr. Beesley on behalf of Aerochem, and Mr. Beesley represented that the cash payments were based on how much paint stripper CCAD bought from Aerochem.

In August 2015, Judge Heaton sentenced the three men each to a term of 36 months' probation. Beesley was also ordered to serve 30 days of home confinement and to pay a fine of $30,000.

These cases are the result of an investigation by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris M. Stephens.