Federal prosecutors filed corruption charges yesterday against a onetime defense contractor who has ties to both U.S. Rep. John Murtha and a suburban Johnstown defense contractor currently under criminal investigation.

Richard S. Ianieri, former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., was accused of accepting $200,000 in kickbacks. He is charged through a criminal information and is expected to plead guilty.

No date has yet been set.

According to the court filing entered yesterday, Mr. Ianieri is accused of taking the kickbacks from a date unknown through January 2006 while an officer for Coherent, which was a prime contractor for the United States. The information charges that Mr. Ianieri "solicited and accepted kickbacks from 'K,' a subcontractor of the United States."

The government alleges that Mr. Ianieri took checks as kickbacks -- one for $102,832.29 and another for $97,0153.56 -- "which ... were provided for the purpose of improperly obtaining and rewarding favorable treatment in connection with 'K's' subcontract relating to a government prime contract."

The information does not identify "K."

In April 2006, Mr. Murtha, D-Johnstown, touted a relationship between Coherent and Kuchera Defense Systems. Coherent, of Doylestown, Bucks County, working with Kuchera Defense Systems in Windber, Somerset County, had obtained more than $30 million in 14 prime contracts for high-tech tools for the military.

A news release from the congressman announced that the two were "working virtually as one company."

Coherent employees designed, developed and tested the products, while Kuchera did the manufacturing.

In August 2007, Coherent became a subsidiary of Argon ST for approximately $20 million, including debt assumption. Mr. Ianieri worked for Argon, based in Fairfax, Va., as the vice president for business development but left the company late last summer.

When contacted at his home in Doylestown last night, Mr. Ianieri referred questions to his attorney, who did not return a call seeking comment.

Yesterday's criminal information marked the first charges arising out of investigations into companies receiving defense earmarks -- contracts targeted to specific projects and firms, usually at the behest of powerful members of Congress.

The charge comes six months after federal agents raided the offices of Kuchera Defense Systems and Kuchera Industries, a suburban Johnstown technology firm.

At the time of the raid, federal agents also searched the homes of the company's two owners, Ronald and William Kuchera.

Both firms have relied in the past on defense contracts directed through the office of Mr. Murtha, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment last night.

The congressman has not been officially named as a target of the ongoing investigation.

At the same time, he has been roundly criticized by some Republican House colleagues, as well as various reform groups, for his practice of directing billions in defense contracts to companies that set up shop in his district.

Since 2003, Mr. Ianieri and colleagues at Coherent have directed a total of $72,950 in political donations to a number of congressmen, both Democrats and Republicans, with ties to the defense industry.

Twenty percent of that amount -- $14,000 -- was given either to Mr. Murtha's re-election campaigns or to his political action committee.

When Coherent entered into the defense market in 2006, the company hired KSA Consulting, a Washington-based firm that once employed Mr. Murtha's brother, Kit, and which is headed by a trio of partners that includes Carmen Scialabba, a onetime Murtha aide.

Neither KSA, Kit Murtha nor Mr. Scialabba has been implicated in any wrongdoing in the ongoing probe.

As a joint team of FBI and IRS agents probes Kuchera, the federal Justice Department is continuing a separate investigation into the defunct lobbying firm PMA. Created by Paul Magliocchetti, a Pittsburgh native who worked as a staff member on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, the firm became the foremost lobbyist for defense dollars.

Federal agents searched PMA's offices in suburban Washington in November, carting away records.

Since that time, one member of the Appropriations Committee, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., has been subpoenaed in connection with that investigation. Mr. Visclosky's former chief of staff was among a number of former congressional employees who joined PMA in its heyday.