Two former Pentagon officials have been sentenced to 24 years each in a federal bribery case in which they made over $1 million and allowed government contractors to provide them with prostitutes.

Federal prosecutors said the men demanded bribes as high as $100,000 in certain cases and received $1.1 million in bribes and other illegal funds from businesses seeking government contracts. The men victimized the minority contract firms whose interests they were supposed to represent, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Neal and Jones laundered much of the money they received through a sham company and offshore accounts. The government estimated the value of the tainted contracts was $20 million.

One of the defendants was unrepentant at sentencing.

The government doesn't get it," he told federal judge James C. Cacheris. "I have given up my family life for small businesses. ... That was my job, helping small businesses to gain access. That's what I was doing."

Lawyers for the pair plan to appeal:

Their lawyers have questioned the reliability of government witnesses, some of whom were drug users who received immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.