Frederick man admits kickback scandal in Oregon

A Frederick man has been sentenced to three months in prison for his role in a kickback scandal involving food services with the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Douglas Levene, 59, must report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Sheridan, Ore., by Jan. 26, according to court documents.

United States Chief District Judge Ann Aiken last week sentenced Levene to serve a concurrent three-month sentence on charges of tax fraud and bribery and pay a $200 fine, the documents state. He pleaded guilty to the two charges in May 2007.

Levene sold food products to the prison from the summer of 2000 to January 2007 as a salesman for a New York-based food company and as the owner of Maryland-based MRB LLC, the documents state. Through a bank account, Levene paid the monthly American Express credit card bill of Karen Monem, the wife of Fred Monem, who was the food service administrator for the prison system.

"I made a bad decision," Levene said. "I should have simply said 'No.' É I made a mistake no one should ever make. I will pay the price for what I did."

Karen Monem was sentenced to a year in prison. Her husband fled to Iran.

After getting out of prison, Levene will face three years of supervised probation with nine months served on home detention, court documents state. He must perform 1,000 hours of community service that "shall not include his EMT skills."

Aiken "did this to protect the life and importance of what I do as a volunteer," Levene said.

Levene has been a member of the Libertytown Volunteer Fire Co. for at least five years, said Mike Naill, company president.

He had been a member of the company's board of directors until this week, when he sent a resignation e-mail to Naill. Levene's term on the board would have been up in December.

Levene is also a member of the Walkersville Ambulance Co. Walkersville Chief Topper Cramer could not be reached for comment.

Levene called his sentence more than fair and said he plans to do his community service hours lecturing to groups, possibly business majors at colleges, about avoiding situations like the one for which he will serve time.

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