Iraq fraud convict to go on trial after plea agreement rescinded
Thursday, July 9, 2009 7:30 pm
Quad City Times – A man who offered bribes to land multimillion-dollar, Iraq war contracts but who breached his plea deal with prosecutors is set for trial Monday in Rock Island.
Mohammad Shabbir Khan went to prison after pleading guilty in June 2006 to fraud, money laundering conspiracy and making a false statement. Witness tampering charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
However, as Khan’s prison time came to an end, the court ruled the deal Khan struck with officials was violated because he transferred $7.3 million from a bank in Dubai to a bank account in his brother’s name in Pakistan in August 2006, despite statements to federal authorities that he could not get access to the money.
He will face trial on the two counts of witness tampering that were dismissed.
Khan, a high-ranking manager for Saudi Arabia-based Tamimi Global Co., provided a KBR manager with a prostitute and $133,000 in exchange for multimillion-dollar dining hall contracts in Kuwait and Iraq overseen by an office on Arsenal Island, officials said. (Click HERE for the original article)
Here’s my question. Where did this happen.? Who was the KBR manager who accepted the bribes of money and prostitutes and where is he now? ANSWER: On 3 March 2006, Stephen Lowell Seamans pled guilty in the United States District Court, Central District of Illinois, to committing wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. He was sentenced to 12 months and ordered to pay restitution of $380,130.
The general public doesn’t seem to understand how prolific forced prostitution is in the LOGCAP area of operations. And the biggest pimps are the labor subcontractors that traffic in workers from third world countries.
Updated 7-10-2009 to add court documents.
Mohammad Shabbir Khan Indictment click HERE
Mohammad Shabbir Khan Plea Agreement click HERE
Mohammad Shabbir Khan Complaint click HERE
Ms Sparky
Iraq fraud sentencing of Illinois man ends 41/2-year battle
Ann McGlynn | Friday, September 4, 2009 11:00 pm
The four-and-a-half-year-old fraud case of an Illinois man accused of fraud in Iraq ended Friday, with a judge accepting a previously rejected guilty plea and the former contractor being sentenced to probation.
Jeff Mazon of Country Club Hills, Ill., will spend six months of his one year of probation on home confinement, Judge Joe B. McDade ruled in U.S. District Court, Rock Island. He must also pay a $5,000 fine. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count for making a false writing on a contract based at Arsenal Island.
That is in stark contrast to the years in prison and felony record he could have had if he were convicted at a third trial in the case. His first two trials ended with hung juries after several days of testimony from witnesses, some who traveled internationally.
McDade initially rejected a plea agreement Mazon reached with prosecutors after the second trial. However, he changed his mind Friday.
Jeff Lang, acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, declined comment. Attorneys for Mazon could not be reached for comment.
Mazon’s sentencing, however, does not mean the case is done.
The case was filed in March 2005, one of the first in a series of cases alleging fraud on contracts involving the Iraq war. Mazon’s co-defendant, Ali Hijazi, remains at large. The men’s prosecution has involved several attorneys, dozens of filings and the two hung juries.
The contract Mazon worked on was LOGCAP III, an Arsenal-based contract that provides everything from laundry service to food for the U.S. military, mostly in southwest Asia. It is why he was charged here.
According to court documents, in February 2003 in Kuwait, as plans were being made for American troops to enter Iraq, Mazon awarded a company named LaNouvelle a contract for $5.5 million to provide the military with fuel tankers.
Mazon was accused of inflating LaNouvelle’s bid and that of another company eight times over the estimated cost before awarding the contract. That turned a $685,000 job into one with a $5.5 million price tag.
When Mazon left KBR in June 2003, Ali Hijazi, a LaNouvelle manager, gave him a $1 million check. Mazon was never able to cash the check, despite numerous attempts.
Hijazi remains in Kuwait, court documents say. The United States and Kuwait do not have an extradition treaty.
Hijazi has asked the charges against him be dismissed based on speedy trial and jurisdictional issues. High-ranking Kuwaiti officials, including the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, have joined in his request.
McDade has refused to rule on the request until Hijazi appears in court. Hijazi is now asking the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to either force McDade to rule or to dismiss the charges.
http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_7170f5b4-99d1-11de-9234-001cc4c03286.html?print=1
I am just curious why Tamimi was not barred
Can not answer that question. I can state that they are the food services provider for the Oasis at Camp Arifjan which is a contract with the Kuwaiti Government.
Also find it interesting that they are part of a company with ITT
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo./PRNewswire/ — ITT Federal Services International Corporation, a subsidiary of ITT Federal Services Corporation(ITT FSC), along with the Abdulla Fouad Company, Ltd., and the Tamimi Group announced today they have formed a Saudi Arabian Joint Venture Company named ITT Federal Services Arabia, Ltd
You just never know where strange bed fellows lay.