Mitchel Field Navy Exchange - A Uniondale U.S. Department of the Navy employee pleaded guilty on Tuesday, August 2, 2017 to bribery in connection with a kickback scheme that involved selling alcohol to unauthorized purchasers at the Navy Exchange at Mitchel Field in Garden City. Credit: Howard Schnapp

A U.S. Department of the Navy employee admitted to accepting more than $250,000 in cash kickbacks in a kickback scheme that involved selling alcohol to unauthorized customers at the Navy Exchange at Garden City's Mitchel Field, officials said federal.

Mitchel Field Navy Exchange

Mitchel Field Navy Exchange

Eric Jex, 29, of Uniondale pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of bribery before US District Court Judge Joan Seybert in Central Islip, the US Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Sentencing is scheduled for February 2.

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The DOJ said Jex, as a salesman at the Navy Exchange, or NEX, located near Nassau Community College, took cash kickbacks — typically $5 to $20 per case of liquor, authorities said — to sell at a deep discount. From November 2015 to December 2016. he delivered alcoholic beverages to three illegal buyers. One of those illegal buyers had a state liquor license, authorities said.

By accepting the kickbacks, the DOJ said that Jex enabled these buyers to make "repeated large purchases" at "low NEX prices," adding that as part of these transactions, Jex also "provided additional price-matching discounts" to unauthorized persons. buyers.

As part of his oversight duties at the exchange, authorities said Jex was required to sell only to authorized employees and was required to verify the buyer's identity before selling.

John Valenti, a reporter since 1981, has been nationally honored by the Associated Press and the Silurians Society for investigative, business and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of Swee'pea. about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in 30 for 30, ESPN's Emmy Award-winning Big Shot. Krist Swensen of Levittown, who retired from the US Navy in 1996, sells cheaper goods at the Navy Exchange and Commissioner Mitchell Field. in the Garden City. Credit: / Jonas Paraskevas

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After filling a few prescriptions at Mitchel Field Family Health Center, where no co-pays saved him more than $60, Krist Swensen headed to the US Navy Exchange in hopes of saving even more money.

A Navy retiree keeps costs down by filling generic prescriptions at a Department of Defense-run clinic under a government health plan that doesn't cover costs. He shops at the Navy Exchange and the Mitchell Field Commissioner, a small department store operated by the Department of Defense in Garden City near the Children's Museum of Long Island.

"Without that? No, it would be very difficult for me to stay here and get my military pension," said Swensen, 60, who lives in Levittown. "Makes a difference."

Mitchel Field Navy Exchange

A small Army-affiliated mall on the site of old Mitchel Field helps retired servicemen, reservists, disabled veterans, and Guard and Reserve soldiers stretch their Department of Defense checks to cover living on expensive Long Island.

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While military salaries and veterans' pensions can more easily cover household expenses when America's largest military bases are in the southern states or rural north, high costs for housing, utilities, and other costs in a metropolitan area can reduce military and veteran incomes. .

Thus, the clinic, commissariat, and exchange provide pleasant assistance to military families and retirees who are struggling to make ends meet.

"The prices are better here," said Westhampton Beach-based Air Force Reserve Staff Sergeant Mark Pueschel, 45.

Pueschel, whose day job takes him to Nassau County, said he comes to the police station to stock up on his four children's favorite summer snacks and the seemingly endless boxes of cereal they snatch during the week. Milk, meat and other items are also on his shopping list.

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"I mentioned it to my wife the other day," Pueschel said after entering the police station last week. "Everything here is about 50 cents cheaper per item."

The commissioner system says visitors save about 30 percent over civilian prices, in part because federal regulations require their prices to be 5 percent higher than costs.

Savings offered by commissioners and grants, which are not open to the public, are considered, according to the Pentagon, "an integral part" of military pay and benefits.

Mitchel Field Navy Exchange

For this reason, active duty military, National Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, and 100% disabled veterans are eligible for access to these facilities. Spouses, ex-spouses, and guardians of deployed military children may also be eligible.

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The health clinic serves approximately 1,300 patients through the Department of Defense's Tricare Prime, a managed health insurance package for active duty, retired soldiers and their families who live too far from a military medical center to be seen by doctors.

The clinic is open six days a week, and classic programs play on the TV in the waiting room. The clinic's nine doctors are specialists in primary care, internal medicine, podiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology.

"Why not have a separate facility where everyone who comes in the door is military?" said Jeff Bloom, director of Uniformed Services Family Health Plan, the contractor that runs the clinic, as the 1960s show "Mr. Ed" played in the background on the television screen. "Patients love it. They tell each other war stories."

Of course, Garden City's military-only mall doesn't protect against the increased selection offered by government-approved retail stores at the nation's major military bases, where short soldiers can purchase everything from camouflage gear to discounted gasoline.

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And the trading system can't always beat the prices in stores. For example, an Apple iPad offered for $489 on the Exchange website was offered for $479 on the Staples website on the same day this month. The same 10,000-watt portable generator model that was publicly traded for $2,499 was offered for $200 less by online retailer Electric Generators Direct.

With only two commissioners in the borough, with another in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, eligible shoppers on eastern Long Island often find the 90-minute round-trip to Garden City to save a few bucks just isn't worth it.

But for those who live near the Military Medical and Commercial Center, aficionados say it's a steal.

Mitchel Field Navy Exchange

The Alabama native, who moved to New York in his 20s with new discharge papers, "a pocket full of cash and a new Monte Carlo," eventually battled war-related stress that left him disabled at 100%.

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Now 61 and living in the nearby Mitchel Field Veterans Housing Complex, Wilson says the amount she saves shopping at the commissary and Navy PX for clothes, electronics, toiletries and other items is the difference between her stay to Long Island or possible relocation. back to Alabama.

"It's great for my family," he said in the police station car park with his daughter. "Here, you'll get a better deal."

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