They say love makes us a fool, but some things are undoubtedly out-of-the-box and even illegal that others do to make love.
This is what happened when a senior research scientist working at the Air Force allegedly brought in an unqualified sex worker to be part of the team. An unsealed search warrant application accuses Dr. James Gord, a decorated civilian Air Force staff, of hiring an unqualified 32-year-old sex worker so she could access the premises whenever they would hook up. The sex worker did not have substantial participation in the project or any educational background in the field.
This sex-related controversy happened at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Back in April, the former chief of the lab, Maj. Gen. William Colley had been court-martialed for being charged with three counts of sexual assault against his sister-in-law. He was then found guilty.
Dr. James Gord (Source: U.S. Air Force)
Just like Colley, Gord had an important role in the research team. This also allows him to bring people in unsuspected. What’s worse with Gord’s approach was the fact that he did not hire the sex worker as a low-level staff. Instead, the woman was tapped as a co-chair of a scientific panel covering groundwork on photonics used in designing rockets, turbine engines, scramjets, and more.
Speculations began to arise when the research team noticed the woman’s erratic behaviors.
The woman “did not fully understand how to use basic word processing…software” and “struggled to formulate coherent interoffice emails,” as noted in the warrant.
Aside from the rumbling within the team, there was also another person who raised the issue.
Spectral Energies, a research company that works closely with the government, has been assigned a contract with the US Air Force for the past 17 years. Spectral Energies CEO Sukesh Roy said he used to work very closely with Roy since he was the lead person who coordinates contract budgeting and finance. The two had become friends, but there was a time when Roy thought Gord was acting abnormally.
Roy acknowledges how instrumental Gord’s research has been to the Air Force. In 2017, the Air Force even praised his output and said it has “produced myriad fundamental technology breakthroughs in burst-mode laser measurement systems that enable scientists and engineers to better understand the performence of real-world air breathing and rocket engines.”
The Start of it All
In October 2017, Roy told Gord he was looking to add an administrative assistant to the team. Gord had met a young “professional” on his flight to Washington, DC, and was “very impressed with how she presented herself.” So he made this direct recommendation to Roy, noting that the woman would be a “good fit” for the role. He also exaggerated her background, saying she was a certified EMT and firefighter with a biochemistry degree from the University of Tennessee. He also created a superfluous fictional character by saying she also attended medical school at the University of Cincinnati.
“Gord highly encouraged Roy to hire [her], speaking highly of [her] technical expertise,” the warrant explains. “He then finished by stating, ‘She’s also really hot.'”
Roy welcomed her but was immediately disappointed with the “lack of capability in the position.”
“Over her first few months on the job, Roy stated [she] was not timely with her [expenses], did not fully understand how to use basic word processing and document creation software, and struggled to formulate coherent interoffice emails,” the warrant goes on. “[She] also failed to provide her college transcripts as requested.”
Both had a confrontation, and Gord eventually admitted that his recommendation was a “prostitute he met in Cincinnati.” He also revealed that he has an excel sheet of sex worker databases on his government-issued laptop. On top of that, he was using his government travel card for cash advances so his family wouldn’t notice his expenses on prostitutes.
Emblem of Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) (Source: Wikipedia)
Roy acted immediately and sent a report to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). In his report, he notes:
Gord “was engaging in unethical government contract negotiations, had communicated threats of violence, and was regularly soliciting prostitution while on the installation and while traveling on official US Air Force business.”
Air Force investigators began to look at the matter in March 2019.
More Monkey Business
The investigations revealed that other scientists were hiring the woman, but Gord believed they were exclusively in love. According to the warrant, another “Dr. I.K.” was paying her 20k a year to clean his house “in the nude and then perform oral sex on him,” according to the warrant.
The woman, who did not finish high school, definitely lacked the skills and knowledge to tackle the technical part of the research at Spectral Energies. However, Gord insists on naming her on white papers and including her in sensitive information about the project.
When Roy asked Gord to “cease all contact” with the sex worker, Gord stopped sharing information with Roy.
“Gord then stated he would come to Building 5 with one of his many guns to ‘end it all,'” the warrant says. “Roy perceived this to mean that Gord would kill Roy and then himself. During the conversation, Gord also reminded Roy, of Bangladeshi ethnicity, that Gord was a senior research scientist at AFRL, and that as Roy was an immigrant the ‘old boys club’ at AFRL would never believe Roy if he disclosed the information about a scientist as well respected as Gord.”
With Roy and Gord’s relationship in tatters, the woman resigned two weeks before Roy was set to fire her in October 2018. She had supposedly taken a job at Spectral Engine’s competitor, Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). As a result, Roy’s contract payment was also halted, and he only received a partial payment of $100,000 instead of the full $250,000.
It was later discovered that the remaining part of the payment was arranged to ISSI as the woman’s compensation.
AFOSI uncovered the woman’s background and found that everything was fraudulent. There were also 27 sex workers in his records located in various US cities.
“Many of the 27 women listed on the Excel document were foreign nationals from countries considered US National Security concerns,” the warrant states.
Unfortunately, before they could proceed with the case, Gord died in September last year, and it was later revealed that the sex worker is 32-year-old Amanda Sevino.