Heath E. Combs — Furniture Today,
Admitted paying Army employee to purchase goods at inflated prices

WALDRON, Ind. — Alvan Vance McQueen II, former president of rustic furniture manufacturer Flat Rock Furniture, will spend a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty in April to bribing a former U.S. Army employee to inflate contracts at an Alpine military resort in Germany.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, McQueen also was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis to a one year of supervision after his release and to pay restitution of $80,000 and a fine of $23,500.

His wife, Amy McQueen, has replaced him as president and CEO of Flat Rock.

According to the charges, Alvan McQueen paid Steven Potoski, a former a civilian Army employee who was director of contracting for the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort Armed Forces Recreation Center, $43,000 in cash and hotel rooms, airfare and tickets to the Indianapolis 500, in return approving the purchase of certain items at prices inflated by $80,000.

McQueen also passed $100,000 in cash to an undercover agent posing as Potoski’s successor as part of a separate scheme to inflate certain line items by $200,000 in a purported contract, the charges said.

Potoski is accused of accepting more than $350,000 in bribes from at least 15 contractors and subcontractors.

According to press reports, U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton described McQueen as an upstanding citizen who was sucked into Potoski’s scheme.