» 2010 » November Ms Sparky

The Louis Berger Group pays $69M for defrauding USG but still has contracts?

Posted on: November 6th, 2010 at 6:35 am — by Ms Sparky

The Louis Berger Group, Inc.

The Louis Berger Group: It May Be a Crook But At Least Its Our Crook

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: November 5, 2010 11:51 PM

Are charges that private military contractors commit egregious acts of fraud overblown? Not according to recent news. McClatchy Newspapers reports that the Louis Berger Group, one of the U.S. government’s highest profile American contractors in Afghanistan has agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations that it overbilled the U.S. government.

In return, the Justice Department will end its investigation into allegations that Louis Berger was intentionally overcharging American taxpayers. The settlement, which is just over $69 million, includes civil and criminal penalties.

Louis Berger’s alleged overbilling, a practice that dates to at least the mid-1990s, swelled to tens of millions in lost tax dollars. In 2006, a former Louis Berger employee handed the government evidence against the company, two months before the U.S. Agency for International Development tapped Louis Berger to jointly oversee $1.4 billion in reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan.

Court documents reveal that the Justice Department has been negotiating a deal that would “aid in preserving the company’s continuing eligibility to participate” in federal contracting in Afghanistan and elsewhere. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, LAWSUITS, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations. Tags: David Isenberg*, Louis Berger Group, Louis Berger/Black & Veatch, Precy Pellettieri, Salvatore Pepe, SIGAR. 4 Comments »

C-4 seized in Colorado in Navy SEAL smuggling case

Posted on: November 5th, 2010 at 4:59 am — by Forseti

(I need some current pics of these guys. Can anyone send me some?Just click the Contact Us tab above. ~ Ms Sparky)

Ken Ritter – LAS VEGAS (AP) — November 4, 2010 – Federal agents seized five pounds of C-4 military explosives from the Colorado home of a man accused with a Navy SEAL and a Las Vegas associate of smuggling machine guns from Iraq into the U.S. for sale and shipment to Mexico, authorities said Thursday.

Grenades and night-vision goggles also were found in the Durango, Colo., home of 34-year-old Richard Paul, according to federal prosecutors and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents in Las Vegas and Colorado.

Paul and Andrew Kaufman, 36, of Las Vegas, were arrested Wednesday and appeared Thursday before federal magistrate judges in Durango and Las Vegas on conspiracy charges. Each was ordered held in federal custody pending an evidentiary hearing.

They are accused of conspiring with Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle of San Diego to smuggle and sell weapons to an undercover federal agent in Nevada and Colorado.

“As long as they got paid … they didn’t care if the weapons wound up in Mexico or on the streets of Las Vegas,” federal prosecutor Drew Smith told U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. in Las Vegas.

Smith characterized Bickle, 33, as a “rogue Navy SEAL” — an active-duty special warfare operator 1st class who Smith said also worked as a consultant on the Hollywood movie “Transformers 3.”

Bickle was arrested Wednesday and was due to appear Friday before a federal magistrate judge in San Diego. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, U.S. Navy. Tags: Andrew Kaufman, Arrests, ATF, Indictments, Iraq, Nicholas Bickle, Richard Paul. 1 Comment »

Is Pentagon procuring petro from perps?

Posted on: November 4th, 2010 at 6:39 am — by Ms Sparky

Pentagon gives large fuel contract to secretive firm
By Andrew Higgins and Walter Pincus – Thursday, November 4, 2010 – In a move that could anger a vital ally in the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon on Wednesday awarded a major jet fuel contract to Mina Corp., a secretive company that has declined to reveal its ownership but has nonetheless become a trusted partner with the U.S. military.

The contract, which may be worth more than $600 million, covers supplies for a U.S. Air Force base in Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished former Soviet republic where public anger over alleged corruption in jet fuel deals has helped topple two presidents in the past five years. All American troops entering and leaving Afghanistan pass through the American base outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. The base is also home to aero-tankers that refuel U.S. aircraft operating over Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s dealings with Mina and an associated firm, Red Star Enterprises, have been under investigation for the past six months by the House subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs. Since the Afghan war began, the companies have come from nowhere to win Pentagon contracts worth about $3 billion. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Defense Logistics Agency*, DLA*, Douglas Edelman, Erkin Bekbolotov, James N. Sellman, Lt. Col. Chuck Squires, Mina Corp., Red Star Enterprises Ltd., Wallace A. Ward. 19 Comments »

Cenk Uygur on the Franken Amendment

Posted on: November 3rd, 2010 at 2:36 pm — by Ms Sparky

MsSparky.com has been following the Franken Amendment since we first heard about it. It still amazes me we have to pass a law so women who have been raped while working for a Defense contractor in a war zone can seek restitution in civil court.

This is an awesome commentary from Cenk Uygur (pronounced jenk Ui-gur) host of The Young Turks, on the Republican response to Senator Al Franken’s Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill. It’s funny and insightful. Cenk Uygur nailed it.

Posted in Franken Amendment*, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Senate & House Committee Hearings. Tags: Cenk Uygur, Defense Authorization Bill, Franken Amendment*, Jamie Leigh Jones, Senator Al Franken*, The Young Turks. 1 Comment »

Thou shalt not lie! Someone needs to tell the Pentagon!

Posted on: November 2nd, 2010 at 5:20 am — by Ms Sparky

Anatomy of a Pentagon Lie

Kelley B. Vlahos – November 1, 2010 – Antiwar.com

It shouldn’t startle anyone to find that the Pentagon has blatantly ignored a congressional mandate to start reducing its use of burn pits at U.S. bases overseas.

It was only a year ago that Pentagon officials openly doubted that the black hellfire released from tons of burning hazardous waste in the open air could possibly have any long-term health effects on anyone unlucky enough to be breathing it in everyday.

“When we look at respiratory effects on a population-wide basis,” said Dr. Craig Postlewaite, director of DoD’s force readiness and health assurance, in an interview last September, “we’re not seeing a cause for concern.” The DoD’s official view has so far not changed. So, even as more and more service members come home sick – some of them irreparably, terminally – it would seem the Department of Defense has gone into classic default mode: stall until it becomes impossible to stall any longer.

That may buy the DoD ten years at least, and by then it’ll be the Veterans Administration’s problem.

The DoD Shuffle.

“They hold with the lie until they are caught so red handed they just can’t lie about it any longer,” says Deb Crawford, who spent time as a civilian electrician in the Green Zone from 2004 to 2006. She now publishes Ms. Sparky.com, a popular watchdog site, and recently spoke with Antiwar.com. “If anyone in the Pentagon were to claim they didn’t think the burn pits were an inherent health hazard to civilians and troops, I would have to call them a bold face liar.” (Read the rest of the story here…)

There is NO excuse not to Vote!

Posted on: November 1st, 2010 at 7:48 am — by Ms Sparky

If you are in a “mail in ballot” only state, you have time to get those ballots dropped off. If you are in a state that requires you to physically go in and vote start making those arrangements if you haven’t already.

Don’t think for one minute that your vote doesn’t matter…it does.

Ms Sparky

Posted in Politics. Tags: election, Politics. 1 Comment »

Holiday Mail For Heroes 2010

Posted on: November 1st, 2010 at 5:46 am — by Ms Sparky

It’s that time of the year again!! And this is the third year Ms Sparky has been involved helping to promote the Holiday Mail For Heroes program sponsored by The American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes. Every year I sit down with my grandson (now 7) and write notes and sign Holiday cards for our soldiers who are deployed or recovering in hospitals like Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The program started September 3rd and all cards must be postmarked buy December 10, 2010 so we need to get on this! Do it today!