Reconstruction corruption Iraq, investigations & indictments growing

Posted on: March 14th, 2010 at 11:49 am — by Forseti
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New Cases Point to Lapses in Projects

By JAMES GLANZ

- March 13, 2010 -
Investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions — involving banks, land deals, loan payments, casinos and even plastic surgery — made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion program.

Some of the cases involve people who are suspected of having mailed tens of thousands of dollars to themselves from Iraq, or of having stuffed the money into duffel bags and suitcases when leaving the country, the federal investigators said. In other cases, millions of dollars were moved through wire transfers. Suspects then used cash to buy BMWs, Humvees and expensive jewelry, or to pay off enormous casino debts.

Some suspects also tried to conceal foreign bank accounts in Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain, the investigators said, while in other cases, cash was simply found stacked in home safes.

There have already been dozens of indictments and convictions for corruption since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the new cases seem to confirm what investigators have long speculated: that the chaos, weak oversight and wide use of cash payments in the reconstruction program in Iraq allowed many more Americans who took bribes or stole money to get off scot-free.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations. Tags: , , , , , , , . 12 Comments »

Spc. Beyshee Velez court-martialed for the murder of KBR employee Lucas Trent Vinson

Posted on: March 13th, 2010 at 8:25 am — by Ms Sparky
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Lucas "Trent" Vinson

Soldier court-martialed in man’s killing in

The trial for Spc. will likely take place this summer

By Gregg K. Kakesako-Star Bulletin
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 13, 2010

A 31-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier will face a general court-martial, probably this summer, for allegedly killing a civilian contractor after a daylong standoff at a military base in Iraq last year.

In one of his first actions since assuming command of the 25th Infantry Division last month, Maj. Gen. Bernard Champoux ordered this week that Spc. Beyshee Velez, a combat medic who has served three tours in Iraq, face a court-martial for the death of Lucas T. Vinson, an employee of Houston-based KBR, near Tikrit on Sept. 13. KBR provides services including housing, meals, mail delivery and laundry. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, CONTRACTOR DEATHS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Lucas Trent Vinson-KBR, Reports & Investigations, U.S. Army, Working Overseas. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments »

Another Army officer pleads guilty to bribery – where’s the honor?

Posted on: March 13th, 2010 at 7:11 am — by Ms Sparky
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Ex-Army officer expected to plead guilty to

By Guillermo Contreras – Express-News
March 12, 2010

A former Army lieutenant colonel plans to plead guilty next month to charges that he accepted bribes in to rig an $11.7 million warehouse contract from a company accused of bribing another officer from San Antonio.

The Justice Department filed charges Feb. 26 against retired Lt. Col. , who is cooperating, as part of a deal he struck to avoid having his case go before a grand jury, records obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show.

Davis is scheduled to plead guilty April 13 in Washington, D.C., to three bribery charges for accepting expensive airplane tickets and $50,000 from an American-run company in Kuwait. The company has been administratively blackballed over allegations that it also bribed other military officers, including then-Army Maj. . (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations, U.S. Army. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . No Comments »

T Christian Miller on Bill Carlisle and Injured War Contractors

Posted on: March 12th, 2010 at 7:02 am — by Ms Sparky
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T Miller brings to light yet another Injured War Zone Contractor who is about to become  homeless due to the unwarranted  denial of Defense Base Act insurance benefits by AIG.    Bill Carlisle has worked hard his whole life and was working hard when he was injured.  Thanks to AIG and the fact no one in Congress or the DoL seems to give a damn, Bill’s home in foreclosure with a sale date within the month.

So what if he eventually gets the payments he is already supposed to be getting?  His credit is ruined and he won’t be able to buy another home.   He’s just another KBR AIG DBA casualty.  AIG and CNA are ruining one life right after another.

Why is the Taxpayer paying for these benefits?

In recent years, the Pentagon has come to increasingly rely on private military contractors to do the work that members of the military used to do. But as the number of civilian contractors has grown, so too has the number of deaths and injuries of those contractors and with it, the cost of paying health care benefits for their injury claims.

T. Christian Miller [1] recently won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting [2] for his coverage of the numerous obstacles contractors face [3] when they’ve been injured and try to collect benefits. We spoke to him about who is responsible for taking care of injured contractors, the ordeal they have to go through to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the role AIG plays in this, contractor suicide rates and how Congress is addressing the problem.

We also hear from one of the people facing the difficulties Miller has documented. Bill Carlisle Jr. was a contractor with defense firm KBR. He sustained both physical and psychological injuries, and is now fighting insurer AIG for the benefits he says they owe him. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in CONTRACTOR DEATHS, DBA-AIG, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, ProPublica, Working Overseas. Tags: , , , . 8 Comments »

Internal report issues black eye for U.S. Embassy in Kabul

Posted on: March 11th, 2010 at 11:04 am — by Ms Sparky
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By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
March 10, 2010

WASHINGTON — The State Department is failing to properly oversee nearly $2 billion in contracts to battle the drug trade, build infrastructure and train police in , according to a bluntly worded internal assessment.

The report by the department’s inspector general questions whether the U.S. will be able to stabilize the country in time to meet President Obama’s goal of withdrawing some troops by June 2011.

“Embassy oversight of contracts and grants is seriously inhibited by the dangerous security conditions … as well as by the shortage of qualified contract officer representatives in ,” says the report, released last week. The embassy “faces serious challenges in meeting the administration’s deadline for ‘success’ in Afghanistan,” it adds.

The embassy, which reports to special representative , says the report is generally “accurate in its assessments,” spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in an e-mail from Kabul. “We are already implementing a great majority of the report’s recommendations.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Reports & Investigations, Senate & House Committee Hearings. Tags: , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

Is the Military turning a blind eye to child rape in Afghanistan?

Posted on: March 10th, 2010 at 11:42 am — by Ms Sparky
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I can’t even begin to tell you how appalled and disgusted I am at the very thought the US Military might be looking the other way when children are being raped and abused. Wasn’t one of the main reasons for the US to go into to free the Afghan people from the Taliban and oppression? I think that should include all the people! Ms Sparky

Child in Afghanistan?
Wednesday 10 March 2010
by: Dave Lindorff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Photo: TSgt Laura K. Smith / U.S. Air Force; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / truthout)

The stated goal of the US-led war in Afghanistan, according to the Obama administration, is to defeat the Taliban and establish a stable democratic government over the entire country. Critical to that goal is establishing a professional Afghan Army and police force that is not corrupt and that has the respect of the Afghan people.

But reports out of Canada suggest that, far from creating such a military and police force, the so-called International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) is turning a blind eye to the thuggish criminality of those organizations, both to avoid growing opposition in ISAF member countries and to avoid offending those organizations in Afghanistan.

The issue in question is routine rape of children by Afghan soldiers and police operating on Canadian-run bases in the Kandahar region.

As reported last fall in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, Canadian military chaplains and some soldiers have been complaining as far back as 2006 that Afghan security forces have been sexually assaulting young boys on their base. These military whistle-blowers charge that the military brass has been ignoring or burying their complaints, fearing the bad publicity they could generate.

The paper reported that Canadian military police have also complained, as reported by Brig. Gen. J.C. Collin, commander of Land Force Central Area, that they were being told “not to interfere in incidents in which Afghan forces were having sex with children.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment. Tags: , , , . 17 Comments »

The False Claims Act rewards citizens for reporting corporate fraud

Posted on: March 9th, 2010 at 6:47 am — by Ms Sparky
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Whistle-blowers are people who know and can prove that the city, state or federal government has paid claims or invoices to wrongdoers based upon false or misleading information. The Federal and similar state and municipal laws allow the government to collect up to three times the amount it was defrauded, in addition to civil penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 per false claim. A whistle-blower in a case, known as a “relator,” is entitled to recover 15-25% of any settlement or recovery obtained by the government in connection with the filing of his or her complaint.

In addition to the Federal False Claims Act, 24 states have their own false claims acts. Each one has established laws that allow recovery for “whistle-blowers” who can prove against a government body and laws that protect them from retaliation by their employer. These states include: California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. The California and Illinois false claims acts also permit relators to bring claims for against private insurers. The District of Columbia, New York City and Chicago also have their own false claims acts.

Qui tam cases come in many varieties. Common types of qui tam fraud include: Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Nursing Home and Healthcare Fraud, Pharmaceutical Fraud, Construction and Contractor Fraud, Wartime and Defense Contractor Fraud, Aerospace Fraud, Education and Grant Fraud, Procurement Fraud, U.S. Postal Service Fraud, and I.R.S. Fraud. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Qui Tam. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments »
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