SAN DIEGO -- A key figure in a bribery scheme involving government contracts has pleaded guilty in San Diego to wire fraud and filing false tax returns, it was reported Tuesday.

In entering her guilty plea in federal court Monday, Kelly Alexander agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against other defendants, including her husband, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Alexander faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on the fraud charge and three years on the tax charge. She is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8.

Prosecutors said Alexander and her husband, Gary, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and lavish gifts in exchange for awarding contracts on behalf of SPAWAR, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

Gary Alexander is a former head of SPAWAR's Air Surveillance and Reconnaissance branch.

Three of six people charged in the scheme, allegedly hatched by the Alexanders, have pleaded guilty to fraud.

Previously, Elizabeth Ramos and her husband Louis Williams, who owned Technical Logistics Corp. in National City, pleaded guilty to fraud charges. They also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against other defendants.

About $4.8 million in contracts was steered to TLC before investigators were alerted in 2008. The Alexanders got between $200,000 and $400,000 in cash, as well as jewelry, fancy clothes and expensive electronic equipment, prosecutors said.

Ramos and Williams are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8. Gary Alexander, along with defendants Jackie Godwin and Sinthia Nares, is scheduled to stand trial in January on fraud-related charges.

Godwin, on behalf of the Alexanders, allegedly directed Ramos on what to buy the couple and told Ramos to hire Nares as a TLC employee for more than $90,000 a year.