Philip Flores, the former owner of Virginia-based Intellipeak Solutions, is headed to federal prison for four years after a San Diego judge concluded he greased a Navy insider to funnel small-business contracts to his company. The punishment caps a bribery scheme that prosecutors say pushed more than $16 million in government payments to Intellipeak.
U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson handed down the sentence in San Diego federal court yesterday and ordered Flores to pay just over $80,000 in restitution, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The outlet reported that Flores had already received a four-month sentence in a separate Georgia case. In court, Flores apologized and told the judge he had “absolutely no excuse for anything I did,” the paper noted.
How prosecutors say the scheme worked
According to prosecutors, Flores showered a San Diego-based Navy contracting official with perks such as pricey meals, top-tier sports tickets and other benefits. The list included parking passes to Game 5 of the 2018 World Series and seats at the 2019 Super Bowl, all in exchange for help steering no-bid and set-aside work to Intellipeak. As outlined by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of California, Flores pleaded guilty in March 2025 after investigators determined Intellipeak collected more than $16 million through roughly two dozen contracts and task orders, generating estimated profits of between $550,000 and $1.5 million. Prosecutors say Intellipeak frequently pushed the actual work to firms that were not eligible for the programs while billing the government as if Intellipeak had performed the jobs itself, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of California.
Role of the Navy official
Former Naval Information Warfare Center contracting officer's representative James Soriano has already admitted his part. He pleaded guilty to taking bribes and acknowledged that he approved invoices, falsified performance evaluations and allowed favored contractors to write procurement documents that tilted competitions in their favor. Military Times reported that Soriano accepted free meals, luxury event tickets and “no-work” jobs for associates in exchange for steering business, all as part of a wider corruption probe at the San Diego command.
Other defendants and wider fallout
The investigation has not stopped with Flores and Soriano. Cambridge International Systems pleaded guilty, was ordered to forfeit profits and must pay fines, while former Cambridge executive Russell Thurston received an 18-month sentence in November as a result of the same probe. Stars & Stripes reported that prosecutors described the scheme as a years-long effort to undermine and manipulate the Navy's contracting process.
Legal implications
Flores was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery under 18 U.S.C. A7 371, a charge that can bring up to five years in prison along with significant financial penalties. The Justice Department has said the broader investigation exposed misuse of the SBA 8(a) small-business program and that victims could be awarded restitution. Federal authorities and watchdog agencies have also cautioned that forfeiture, corporate sanctions and additional civil liability often follow fraudulent conduct in the government contracting world, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Flores’ sentence marks one more conviction in a sprawling, multi-agency investigation involving NCIS, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, IRS Criminal Investigation and the SBA Office of Inspector General. Federal officials say they plan to keep tracking leads and holding both individuals and companies accountable for corrupt contracting practices tied to the Navy.
