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.

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