Bio fund buys failed Gaithersburg office condo for $8.8M

The life sciences fund, a new $100 million joint venture between JBG Cos. of Chevy Chase and Scheer Partners of Rockville, plans to restructure the two buildings as lab space. Brownstone had not sold any condo units, said Mike Norris, a Scheer asset manager.

The property was built in 1979 and was once home to the nonprofit Institute for In Vitro Sciences, which moved to another location.

‘‘21 Firstfield will be the only significant block of Class A lab space available in the Gaithersburg market, which has the second highest concentration of life sciences companies in the state,” said Matt Brady, vice president of Scheer Partners and the senior agent marketing the project. Scheer will handle leasing and managing the building.

Ex-cop gets 4 yearsfor bribery, pornography

A former Montgomery County police officer and business owner has been sentenced to four years in prison on several charges, including bribing a federal official to win $130 million in contracts for his Silver Spring security company, Holiday International Security, now known as USProtect Corp.

Michael B. Holiday, 51, of Silver Spring also was convicted of tax evasion and transporting child pornography by computer, federal prosecutors announced. He also was ordered to pay $400,000 restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and register as a sex offender after his release.

From 2000 to 2003, Holiday gave Dessie Ruth Nelson, 65, formerly of the General Services Administration, $45,000 in cash and a Caribbean cruise to win security contracts in Southern California, prosecutors said.

Nelson, of Oakland, Calif., is to be sentenced July 28. Also, Richard S. Hudec, 45, of Naples, Fla., a former COO of USProtect, was sentenced last month to 33 months for tax evasion in connection with federal contracts awarded to the company.

Physician gets 37 months for false medical billing

A Bethesda anesthesiologist, Martin R. McLaren, 65, has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for lying about billing procedures for reimbursement by both government and commercial insurers, according to information from the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office. McLaren also agreed to pay $5 million in restitution, forfeiture and a civil settlement.

McLaren, who admitted causing $1.75 million in losses, owns the Pain Management Center in Hyattsville, with offices in Waldorf, Oxon Hill and Largo.

‘‘McLaren’s case is among the largest criminal health care fraud cases in the District of Columbia,” said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor in a statement.

People on the move

Andrew Persily, a group leader at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, was installed as vice president of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Telkonet of Germantown promoted Jeff Sobieski to COO, succeeding Dottie Cleal. Previously, Sobieski, who joined Telkonet in 2007, was executive vice president of energy management. Earlier, he was chief information officer and co-founder of EthoStream and co-founded Interactive SolutionZ.