Ex-Army master sergeant pleads guilty to bribery
HONOLULU (AP) — A retired army master sergeant on Friday pleaded guilty to bribery and money laundering charges stemming from his tour of duty in Iraq.
Ronald Joseph Radcliffe, 43, first entered a not guilty plea in May. But on Friday, he changed his plea to guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
Radcliff was in Iraq from January 2004 to February 2005 as a member of the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
While stationed in Kirkuk as a supply official, Radcliffe accepted money from Metin Subasi, a Turkish national, according to the indictment. He then steered Army contracts to several of Subasi’s companies.
He later mailed cash to his girlfriend in Hawaii, telling her to deposit it in the bank in small increments so as not to tip off the Internal Revenue Service, according to the indictment. He also carried cash with him when he visited Hawaii in September 2004.
On Friday, in U.S. District Court in Honolulu Radcliffe admitted receiving at least $37,600 in return for influencing the contracting process.
The money laundering charge arose from transactions involving the proceeds of the bribery.
He faces maximum prison terms of 15 years on one bribery charge and 20 years on one money laundering charge.
At the time of his initial plea in May, Radcliffe was a civilian employee of defense contractor KBR in Afghanistan.
Radcliffe was also initially charged with mail and wire fraud, but those charges will be dropped as part of his plea agreement.
He is free on bail secured by property, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Honolulu said. Sentencing was set for February 8.
The prosecution stemmed from an investigation by the Army and FBI officials. (click HERE for the original article)
I say that he will not get out too early at all. Maybe with the new Sheriff in town he and Bubba can get married. Since this was done while he was a soldier I doubt they will look lightly on him unless he turns others in as a concilliartory gesture.
The early release provision of the Second Chance Act applies to a very limited group. According to its terms, only offenders over age 65 who have served 10 years or 75% of their time and who did not commit a violent or sex crime can be released early. This applies, therefore, to approximately 650 of the 200,000 federal prisoners. The early release program is to begin on October 1 2008.
The economics are also not encouraging for anyone hoping to spend more than 6 months at a half-way house. It is cheaper to house inmates in prison than in a half-way house. The average daily cost to house an inmate in a half-way house is $64. The average daily cost to house an inmate in a low-security prison is $48
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He will probbaly get 2-4 years. That would be in line with other military members who were up on the same charges.