Defending KBR’s honor; the case of the missing CHU’s and other news

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Here is what’s happening in the world of contracting.  Thomas Vaughn, president of KBR’s Power and Industrial Business Unit, has channeled his inner Bill Bodie and submitted an OpEd defending KBR (note to KBR legal team please add some new lines to your repertoire).  David Brooks’ girlfriend and brother were barred from the courtroom after contraband was found concealed in ink pens.  You would think that someone with a $350,000.00 pen collection would have at least one capable of concealing contraband.   A State Department employee has been indicted on Iraq fraud allegations and not to be out done an official from Army Space and Missile Defense Command, in Huntsville  Alabama,  has pled guilty to accepting bribes.  Meanwhile the Pentagon has spent millions and is forecasting billions of dollars to be spent on Information Operations (IO) and Psychological Operations (PSYOP) to handle media relations.  ~Forseti

US still open to military contract bids-Kuwait’s KGL
KUWAIT (Reuters) – July 25, 2010 -A lucrative contract to support U.S. Forces in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan is still up for grabs according to Kuwaiti logistics firm KGL, which said on Sunday the U.S. government would accept “amended bids.”

KGL’s announcement on the Kuwait bourse appeared to counter a statement on Friday from Dubai-based ANHAM FZCO LLC, which had been awarded the work and said the U.S. government had dismissed a protest filed by KGL against that decision. KGL, or Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co, said it had received an email stating that the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency will “reopen limited talks …. and receive amended bids,” ahead of making new decisions about the contract.

Gulf Arab state Kuwait has become a major logistics base for the American military since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In the wake of fraud charges against main long-time supplier Agility of Kuwait, the U.S. military awarded a prime vendor contract to ANHAM.  (Click HERE for article)

Letters To The Editor For Sunday, July 25 and The Palm Beach Post
Company has worked hard to involve locals – Friday, July 23, 2010
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not their own facts. As president of KBR’s Power and Industrial Business Unit, which is responsible for BE&K’s work with the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority, I would like to set the record straight on the July 18 Palm Beach Post editorial.

In January 2009, BE&K won the bid to refurbish and replace equipment and infrastructure at the SWA’s waste incineration plant. BE&K was selected based upon its unmatched experience and commitment to high-quality service.

BE&K has been and remains fully committed to hiring local workers whenever possible. Since September of last year, we have partnered with the Workforce Alliance and held two large job fairs at Palm Beach State College. We also have engaged with veterans’ associations, Florida apprenticeship programs and other state employment groups. Last, we have reached out to Associated Builders and Contractors, and hosted several job open houses throughout Palm Beach County. (Click HERE for editorial)

Brooks’ girlfriend, brother barred from court
By ROBERT E. KESSLER – July 23, 2010 – A federal judge has barred from the courtroom both the girlfriend and brother of former body-armor manufacturer David Brooks, on the eve of final summations in his fraud trial, which is winding down after six months.

U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert, ruling from Central Islip, issued the order banning Jil Klinkert, who is also one of Brooks’ paralegals, and Jeffrey Brooks after federal marshals on Tuesday discovered nine contraband pills that appeared to be tranquilizers concealed in pens at Brooks’ defense table.

Klinkert and Jeffrey Brooks brought in the material – including legal briefs, water bottles, writing pads and pens – that were placed in front of Brooks’ spot at the defense table before marshals led him into the courtroom, according to several sources familiar with Seybert’s ruling. (Click HERE for article Subscription Required)

U.S. Government Accountability Office Dismisses Protests over ANHAM FZCO, LLC Prime Vendor Contract to Support Troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan
WASHINGTON, July 23 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) dismissed the protest filed against the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency contract award to ANHAM FZCO, LLC to provide full-line food and non-food distribution in support of Department of Defense customers in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan.  ANHAM FZCO continues without interruption its mobilization and transition efforts pursuant to its contract. (Click HERE for article)

Former Department of State Employee Charged with Defrauding the United States and Iraq in Connection with a $147,000 Fraud Scheme
WASHINGTON— July 22, 2010 – A former Department of State employee has been charged for his alleged role in a $147,000 wire fraud scheme involving the conversion of government-owned property for the employee’s use, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.

Robert D. Hearn, 55, was charged in a five-count indictment in the Southern District of Texas with wire fraud and conversion stemming from a scheme to defraud the United States and Iraq. Hearn was arrested this morning in Temple, Texas, and will make his initial appearance in court today. According to the indictment, from April 2005 to September 2006, Hearn worked for the Department of State’s Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO) and was responsible for providing advice to the director of the port at Umm Qasr, in Basra, Iraq. The port director was an official with the Iraqi Ministry of Transportation.

The indictment alleges that, in late 2005 and early 2006, Hearn orchestrated the transfer of approximately 60 accommodations caravans and other equipment from the site of a U.S.-funded power plant project in Khor Az Zubair, Iraq, to the port, purportedly on behalf of IRMO. These caravans served as living and office accommodations for government and private personnel, but since construction of the power plant was winding down, the caravans were no longer needed at that location. (Click HERE for article)

Army Space and Missile Defense Command Engineer Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes
BIRMINGHAM—A Scottsboro man pleaded guilty today in federal court to accepting bribes when he worked as an engineer with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, and to evading payment of taxes on the bribery income, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Pat Maley and IRS Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Investigations, Reginael McDaniel announced.

STEVEN EARL BRYANT, 39, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor to being a public official who accepted bribes in relation to Space and Missile Defense Command contracts with private companies that were supposed to provide material for missile defense research. He also pleaded guilty to evading taxes of $33,370 on $110,694 of unreported income for the 2006 calendar year. The charges were brought in a two-count information filed in federal court in May. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

“Mr. Bryant was a public official with the U.S. Army who was willing to sell his influence in that job in order to enrich himself,” Vance said. “By accepting payments in return for preferential treatment of private contractors, he violated the contracting process and the Army’s trust, and enabled a larger fraud. Protecting the military, and the American taxpayer, from this type fraud is a priority of this Justice Department and my office,” she said. (Click HERE for article)

Behind the media contractors’ veil
Mark Prendergast – July 12, 2010 – When the U.S. military in Afghanistan canceled a media services contract with the Rendon Group last summer, Stars and Stripes, which had assailed Rendon’s analyses of journalists’ work as an affront to press freedom and a Pentagon effort to skew public perception of the war, saw it as a white flag and moved on.

Had journalists here and elsewhere instead pressed on, they might have found more to report with regard to the untold millions of dollars spent yearly on information services provided by contractors like Rendon.

For one, the identities of large companies are sometimes masked in public records with the designation “miscellaneous foreign contractors” – even when they are prominent, registered American firms, their contracts are unclassified, the companies and Pentagon officials are open about what they do, and the contractors have not asked to be shielded from public view. (Click HERE for article)

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Other Related Posts From Ms Sparky

1. Was McCreight a menace or ‘mentor’ to medal of honor recipient?
2. Court rules against Agility in fraud case appeal
3. The Missing Man by Susie Dow
4. Kuwait Agility to pay $600M in DoD fraud case (updated)
5. Another Army officer pleads guilty to bribery – where’s the honor?

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Written by Forseti. This entry was posted on July 25, 2010 at 5:09 am and is filed under GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Tagged Agility, Agility/PWC/GCC, Army CID*, Army Criminal Investigation Command*, David H. Brooks, DHB Industries, DoS*, Information Operations (IO), Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO), Jeffrey Brooks, Jil Klinkert, KBR, KGL Logistics, Ltd. (SOSi), Point Blank Solutions, Psychological Operations (PSYOP), Rendon Group, Robert D. Hearn, SOS International, Ltd. (SOSi), Steven Earl Bryant, Thomas Vaughn, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, U.S. Dept. of State* You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.