An Unexpected Fall From Grace

Dynamics case

It was sobering news even for Washington cynics. NASA officials were one Government group considered to be impervious to scandal. Last week, though, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted James M. Beggs, NASA'S administrator and a former executive vice president of General Dynamics, the third largest U.S. defense manufacturer. Although the charge had nothing to do with NASA business, it was still a blow to agency morale and prestige.

Beggs and three General Dynamics executives were charged with conspiring to defraud the Government by improperly billing some $7.5 million while producing the DIVAD, a prototype for a gun designed...

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