A multi-billion dollar defense contractor that gets federal work without competition because of the hardships of life as an &#8220;Alaskan native&#8221; doesn&#8217;t just have an apparently Eskimo-free executive suite — it passes through millions to the non-native companies of the CEO&#8217;s husband, which don&#8217;t even pretend to be indigenous.
ASRC Federal&#8217;s business model relies on racial preference laws that allow no-bid contracts for firms owned by minorities, with even larger contracts available to those owned by indigenous people. It is named after, and is owned by, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, a for-profit company whose shares are held by 14,000 Inupiaq natives in a remote region of Alaska.
There is little indication that the government&#8217;s so-called 8(a) program is training disadvantaged indigenous people to do high-skilled work. The company declined to say how many Alaska natives work there. Its CEO is Jennifer Felix, a white woman who lives in a $4.3 million home in Loudoun County, Virginia, as The Daily Wire reported last month.
Much of the money awarded to &#8220;Alaskan&#8221;-owned firms isn&#8217;t done by those firms at all. ASRC has subcontracted $3.5 million to the companies of Jennifer Felix&#8217;s white husband. Even without her salary from ASRC — which it declined to disclose — that&#8217;s nearly enough to pay for their 14,000-square foot home with a guest house and private movie theater. Meanwhile, the largest village in the Inupiaq area has only one rusted-out, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27876493-cl-2023-16612comp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closed-down</a> theater.
&#8220;The 8(a) program wasn’t designed to bankroll Beltway power-couples,” said Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, whose researchers tipped The Daily Wire off to the subcontracts. &#8220;This is a corrupt grift and Americans are paying for it.&#8221;
In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security gave ASRC Federal Data Network Technologies LLC a $16.7 million contract for &#8220;networking maintenance and engineering services.&#8221; Nearly a fifth of the work — <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_70T03022F7672N001_7013_HHSN316201200127W_7529" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$3 million</a> — was subcontracted out to companies associated with Jennifer Felix&#8217;s husband.
This was not an 8(a) contract, but it was still enabled by ASRC’s minority status. The $16.7 million award came through a <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_HHSN316201200127W_7529" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contract</a> limited to small businesses — the Alaska native program <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-121#se13.1.121_1201" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allows</a> native tribes to create an unlimited number of subsidiaries and have them count as a &#8220;small&#8221; business for purposes of contracting, even though they are owned by a multi-billion dollar one. If the company was a subsidiary of a white-owned business, it would not be eligible for small business contracts because its size would be based on the parent company.
Ironically, the contract was to help the &#8220;acquisition program management office,&#8221; which deals with contracting policy — even as the contract is itself a case study in how the intent of the DEI program is blatantly being undermined.
Ken Felix was vice president at B&amp;B Consulting Enterprises, a software firm. The company received more than <a href="https://www.highergov.com/awardee/b-b-consulting-enterprises-inc-10011973/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.7 million</a> in subcontracts on the ASRC job. According to a lawsuit filed by B&amp;B, the company terminated Ken from his $230,000-a-year job in September 2022.
He and another employee created Daurem LLC as a competing company, despite provisions in their contracts, and ASRC then moved the subcontract to Daurem, specifically naming Ken Felix as Program Manager, the suit said. Daurem LLC has received more than $1.2 million on that job.
Money subcontracted to the CEO’s husband&#8217;s firm means less profit for indigenous shareholders. Yet moves that undermine the goals of the 8(a) program are so common, and have historically faced so little scrutiny, that they aren&#8217;t even hidden: ASRC, Daurem LLC, and the TSA won an award for their &#8220;partnership.&#8221; The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council lauded them for working together to develop &#8220;biometric identity verification technology, currently deployed at 10 high-volume international airports.&#8221;
Agile Decision Sciences has disclosed 103 <a href="https://www.highergov.com/awardee/agile-decision-sciences-llc-10005368/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;teaming partners,&#8221;</a> a euphemism used in the 8(a) world that amounts to work being subcontracted out to non-disadvantaged firms, while being open about it with the government because the qualifications of the non-disadvantaged partner help convince the government to give the contract.
Even as the Alaska native contracting program was justified by the poverty and low-tech lifestyles of the indigenous people, its proposition rests on the idea that they are now developing America’s most high-tech defense systems. In reality, the work is more often done by highly-paid white people in Virginia, the most common state where &#8220;Alaskan&#8221; firms operate.
Jennifer Felix has showered liberal politicians with tens of thousands of dollars in donations to groups like &#8220;Pro-Choice Majority 2024,&#8221; &#8220;Elect Dems Now,&#8221; and the campaigns of Democrat Virginia senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
According to data from <a href="https://www.highergov.com/awardee/daurem-llc-541097139/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HigherGov.com</a>, the vast majority of the husband&#8217;s company&#8217;s government revenue has come from ASRC subcontracts. Another ASRC subsidiary gave Daurem LLC a $480,000 subcontract on a TSA contract that it got without competition — an eighth of the money paid out on the overall contract. The <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_70T04023C7573N002_7013_-NONE-_-NONE-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contract description</a> reads, &#8220;This is an 8(a) award to Agile Decision Sciences, LLC for a mobile phone app to do identity verification activities for transportation security officers.&#8221;
ASRC said in a statement that “Any characterization or suggestion that ASRC Federal has improperly steered contracts to its leadership’s family members is materially false … Leaders including our CEO adhere to a strict corporate code of conduct and a conflict-of-interest policy to ensure proper protocols are followed.”
B&amp;B&#8217;s <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27876493-cl-2023-16612comp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> said that Ken Felix arranged for other employees to leave the company to work directly at ASRC, and also teamed up with a different woman-owned business called Intellect Solutions LLC to bid on work that was, thanks to 8(a), earmarked exclusively for woman-owned contractors.
Daurem&#8217;s lawyers replied that &#8220;employees do not owe fiduciary duties of loyalty post-employment and are therefore free to compete against a former employer.&#8221; A judge rejected many of its arguments, and the lawsuit was settled soon after.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-pete-hegseth-is-right-to-take-a-sledgehammer-to-the-8a-scam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> his department is cracking down on the 8(a) program.
“In the Pentagon, $100 million sole-source contracts go out the door to these 8(a) firms almost <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-pete-hegseth-is-right-to-take-a-sledgehammer-to-the-8a-scam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">every day</a> without any competition or opportunity for anyone else to bid,” he said. “In many, many instances, these socially disadvantaged businesses don’t even do work. They take a 10%, 20%, sometimes 50% fee off the top, then pass the contract off to a giant consulting firm.&#8221;
The Small Business Administration, which doles out the 8(a) designation to companies, last week said it has moved to ban 624 firms because &#8220;amid the Biden-era DEI agenda, the 8(a) federal contracting program became rife with so-called ‘socially and economically disadvantaged’ firms who abused sole-source and set-aside contracts to enrich themselves with pass-through schemes.&#8221;
Editor&#8217;s note: This piece was updated with additional details about the contracts awarded to ASRC.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-a-top-pentagon-contractor-enriches-dc-insiders-using-a-law-intended-to-help-eskimos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How A Top Pentagon Contractor Enriches DC Insiders Using Law Intended To Help Eskimos</a>

<script async src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script><div data-widget-host="revcontent" data-pub-id="165152" data-widget-id="290588"></div><script src="https://delivery.revcontent.com/165152/290588/widget.js"></script>

Defense Contractor Used Minority Status To Win Contracts, Subcontracted To CEO’s White Husband

Trump’s Massive Anti-Fraud Strike Force Lands In Ohio

Ohio Suspends Dozens Of Medicaid ‘Home Health’ Firms Highlighted In Daily Wire Investigation

Refugees From Bhutan Billed Medicaid Millions. Now They Drink Champagne In Private Jets.

Dr. Oz Drops Into Ohio To Crack Down On Medicaid Fraud Identified By Daily Wire

Ex-Top Foreign Aid Official Cries As He Is Sentenced To Prison For Bribes

Ohio Restores Medicaid Anti-Fraud Measures After Daily Wire Investigation

Investigation

Department of Defense

Minority Contracting

A video goes viral showing a baby being refused his mother by two gay "dads". This is just the tip of the iceberg, which is why we will have an important discussion today about surrogacy. 

Hour 1

The Matt Walsh Show

Ep. 1765 - This Video Is One Of The Worst Things I've Seen In A Long Time 

The Strait of Hormuz officially opens for business (kind of), the Pope makes “shocking” comments on immigration, and President Trump promises UFO disclosure at TPUSA. 


The Michael Knowles Show

Ep. 1956 -  Pope Leo's "SHOCKING" Immigration Comments EXPLAINED

A false miscreed has corrupted our leadership class.


The Andrew Klavan Show

Ep. 1275 - Dumb, Dumber and Progressive

President Trump announces a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, a murder-suicide involving former Democratic Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax shakes Virginia, and France and Britain hold a conference to secure the Strait of Hormuz – after the Iranian conflict ends. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.

- - -

Ep. 2738

- - -

Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3

- - -

Today's Sponsors:

Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text 'WIRE' to 83848 to learn more.

Pocket Hose - Text MORNING to 64000 to get a FREE pocket pivot and their 10-pattern sprayer with the purchase of ANY size Copper Head hose. Message and data rates may apply.

Morning Wire

U.S. Expands Hormuz Blockade & VA Fairfax Deaths Investigated | 4.17.26

U.S. Expands Hormuz Blockade & VA Fairfax Deaths Investigated | 4.17.26 [Member Exclusive]

A ceasefire goes into effect between Israel and Lebanon, a tragic murder-suicide rocks Virginia, and Dairy Queen deploys AI in the drive-thru. Get the facts first with Evening Wire.
- - -
Ep. 2737
- - -
Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 
- - -
Today’s Sponsor:

Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text “WIRE” to 83848 to learn more.


Menu

— Investigation —

Defense Contractor Used Minority Status To Win Contracts, Subcontracted To CEO’s White Husband