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A married senior US Air Force scientist accused of tricking a colleague into hiring a ‘really hot’ prostitute to join their top military research team, killed himself when he realized he was about to be exposed.
James Gord, 57, hanged himself with a braided nylon rope in the garage of his home in Beavercreek, Ohio, according to an autopsy report obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
Gord’s death on September 10 last year came as investigators were closing in on him for persuading colleague Sukesh Roy to hire $400-an-hour sex worker Amanda Savino to a highly sensitive position, even though she could barely use a computer.
Gord worked in the hypersonics directorate in the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. At the time Roy was a contractor whose company Spectral Energies provided laser imaging of turbine engines for the lab.
The two men had known each other for 17 years and had become close friends, FBI agent Jacqueline Horton wrote in an affidavit to support the search warrant request. Gord had awarded millions of dollars in annual grants to Roy’s company for his work.
Dr. James Gord was accused of tricking a supervisor into hiring sex worker Amanda Savino, 32, onto a team tasked with developing hypersonic jet engines
DailyMail.com can reveal that Gord, 57, hanged himself in the garage of his home in Beavercreek, Ohio, on September 10, 2021
Roy would not come to the door of his house in Dayton. His wife said he was napping and would not comment anyway.
Attempts to contact Savino were unsuccessful.
The sleazy details of Gord’s case were unsealed by a federal court in Ohio last month after the file was closed.
A search warrant, released by the court showed the FBI wanted to comb through Google and Yahoo computers to find proof of his scheme.
Spectral Energies CEO Sukesh Roy hired Savino after Gord spoke on her behalf and provided a false story about her background
But Gord’s suicide put an end to the case before he could be prosecuted.
In 2017, Gord told Roy that he had met Savino, 32, on a plane and ‘was very impressed with how she presented herself,’ Horton wrote.
He claimed they were sitting next to each other on a flight from Dallas to Dayton when Savino noticed the work he was doing on his laptop and they struck up a conversation because she had an interest in the subject.
The truth was that they had met when he hired her at $400-an-hour through a Cincinnati escort service called Discreet Desires.
‘Gord highly encouraged Roy to hire Savino, speaking favorably of Savino’s technical expertise,’ Horton wrote.
‘He then finished by stating ”she’s also really hot.”’
But Roy soon found that Savino wasn’t up to the job, Horton added.
‘Roy quickly grew frustrated with Savino’s lack of capability in the position.
‘(She) did not fully understand how to use basic word processing and document creation software and struggled to formulate coherent interoffice emails.’
And when she couldn’t provide her college transcripts – supposedly for an art degree from the University of Florida, a biochemistry degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and from time studying for a medical degree at the University of Cincinnati Medical School – he confronted Gord, who was forced to admit he was having an affair with her.
But by this time Savino had already found new clients on the air force base.
One man, a contractor on the Ballistic Missile Systems Integration Flight, identified only as Dr. IK, paid her $20,000 a year to clean his apartment in the nude and give him oral sex, according to the warrant.
Sex worker Amanda Savino, 32, was employed on a team tasked with developing hypersonic jet engines and rockets at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio
The autopsy report obtained by DailyMail.com reveals that Gord killed himself by hanging
When agents searched Gord’s computer they found he had kept a record of at least 27 prostitutes he had slept with during travels around the country for his job.
Many of them, Horton revealed, ‘were foreign nationals from countries considered U.S. National Security concerns.’
Gord told Roy he would take out cash advances against his government travel card to pay the women so his wife Renee and their children would not find out.
He said he paid Savino, who he also persuaded to claim she was a certified firefighter and EMT, $400 an hour for ‘various sexual acts.’
Despite revealing Savino’s true identity, Gord still asked Roy to expand her technical research responsibilities with the military contractor, and even to include her name on research publications.
He also urged him to appoint her representative for Spectral Energies for any duties outside of the Dayton area.
‘Roy refused both requests, citing Savino’s position with the company as an administrative technician and because she was not a technical expert in their field,’ Horton wrote in the affidavit.
The warrant said that Roy met with his attorney to discuss firing Savino, but was advised to wait until her one-year review in November 2018 to ‘limit the company’s potential liability.’
But when Gord discovered his friend wanted to dismiss his lover, he threatened the Bangladesh-born scientist.
‘Gord then stated he would come to Building 5 with one of his many guns to ”end it all,”’ the warrant read.
‘Roy perceived this to mean that Gord would kill Roy and then himself.’
He also told Roy that, as an immigrant, the ‘old boys club’ at research lab would never believe his version of the story.
But two weeks before Savino’s one year review, she decided to leave Spectral and join a competitor company, Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI).
Gord then cut an annual Air Force Research Lab grant to Roy’s company from $250,000 to $100,000, giving the other $150,000 to ISSI.
The crimes laid out against Gord and Savino, as listed in the warrant issued. They included embezzlement/misuse of government property, false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims, ethnic intimidation, aggravated menacing, and extortion of officers or employees of the United States
‘This was the first time in years that Gord did not allocate his entire research budget to Spectral Energies,’ Horton wrote.
‘The timing of Gord’s decision corresponded to Savino’s new position at ISSI,’ Horton wrote, noting that a search of Gord’s phone revealed that he told Savino the grant would cover her ISSI salary.
That was too much for Roy who then reported his former friend to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which soon realized Savino had fabricated her college education.
When agents searched Gord’s office in April 2019 they found women’s underwear, a box of Trojan condoms – a 12pack containing only 10 – and several empty bottles of erectile dysfunction medication.
When they searched his computer they found an email from Gord to Savino explaining his preference for ‘sexy lingerie’ and erotic clothing and asking her to spend entire nights with him saying that sleeping together was ‘very important to him.’
He also asked her to ‘bring her Screaming O.’ Horton dryly interpreted that as ‘A request that Savino orgasm during sex.”