Baby Still Imprisoned After Mom’s Death – Kuwait (updated)

Posted on: July 16th, 2011 at 3:42 pm — by Ms Sparky
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I know this is a little off topic from what I normally publish, but an acquaintance in sent me this article(pdf) that appeared in the printed version of the Kuwait Times on Saturday July 14, 2011 and it has bothered me since. Oddly enough the article has yet to appear in the on-line version of the Kuwait Times. I suspect there was some intervention and damage control by the Kuwaiti Government that kept it from being published.

From the Kuwait Times – July 14, 2011

Baby Still Imprisoned After Mom’s Death

Kuwait: A baby boy not yet a year old whose mother gave birth to him whilst incarcerated in on adultery charges has been left orphaned and imprisoned after she passed away whilst still in detention.

The ‘youngest prisoner in Kuwait’, whose mother tragically died of as-yet unidentified causes following her latest court appearance, was born following a relationship between his mother and a Bangladeshi man who refused to acknowledge paternity, insisting that he was not the father and even that he had never had a relationship with the baby’s mother. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Miscellaneous. Tags: , . 25 Comments »

Court rules against Agility in fraud case appeal

Posted on: July 16th, 2011 at 7:14 am — by Ms Sparky
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Matthew Bigg – (Reuters) – ATLANTA – July 15, 2011 – A U.S. appeals court has ruled against an attempt by Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility to avert prosecution over charges it defrauded the U.S. Army in multibillion-dollar contracts.

Agility was the largest supplier to the U.S. Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq. Charges that it overcharged the Army over 41 months on $8.5 billion in supply contracts made the case politically sensitive in Washington and .

The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta should allow the fraud case against Agility to proceed after more than a year of legal argument over whether the company was correctly served with an indictment by U.S. prosecutors in 2009.

The court dismissed the appeal by the company on procedural grounds. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Agility/PWC/GCC, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests. Tags: , , , . 4 Comments »

Justin W. Lee pleads guilty to charges relating to Iraq contracts

Posted on: July 15th, 2011 at 1:47 pm — by Forseti
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Former President of Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Bribery Related to Department of Defense Contracts in Iraq

Jailbird by artist Kevin Hanna

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – July 15, 2011 – The former president of Lee Dynamics International, a defense contractor providing services to the U.S. military in Iraq, pleaded guilty today to an indictment charging him with a scheme to bribe military officials in order to obtain government contracts, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. 

, 33, a resident of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and four counts of bribery.  Lee and his father, Jr., were charged in an indictment unsealed on May 27, 2011, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  

Justin Lee admitted that he conspired with his father and others to bribe military contracting officers in order to obtain government contracts to support U.S. combat operations in Iraq.  According to court documents, Justin Lee provided things of value, including cash, airline tickets, meals, hotel stays, spa visits and jobs, which were valued at a total of more than $1.2 million, to public officials in return for official acts which helped him obtain lucrative Department of Defense contracts.  The contracts included multi-million dollar contracts for the storage of weapons at various warehouses in Iraq as well as bottled water. 

 “For Justin Lee and others, bribery was a way of doing business,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.  “He offered military officials vacations to and Europe, Rolex watches, cash, and even employment with their company, all in order to secure lucrative defense contracts.  Private contractors will not be allowed to win business by stacking the deck against the competition and, as this investigation shows, the military officials who participate in such fraudulent schemes will also be held to account.”  (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments »

Government contractors overbilling for services — YA THINK?

Posted on: July 15th, 2011 at 6:29 am — by Forseti
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Suit: Blackwater may have overbilled government $300 million

Bill Sizemore – (Virginian-Pilot) – July 14, 2011 – Two former Blackwater employees say they have new evidence that the company may have overbilled the federal government more than $300 million for security services in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They cite a report from an outside auditor who says Blackwater executives and State Department officials withheld critical information from him – including allegations of bribing foreign officials.

The former employees are suing the Moyock, N.C.-based company, now known as Xe Services, for alleged contract fraud. They filed papers in federal court in Alexandria this week citing an audit performed in 2008 for the State Department’s inspector general.

, the accountant who oversaw the audit, is expected to testify in the fraud trial, which is scheduled to begin July 25.

In a declaration filed with the court, Cotton said, “We determined that, due to significant deficiencies in Blackwater’s internal accounting controls, it was not possible to conclude that the State Department was being correctly billed by Blackwater.”

He also said Blackwater executives and State Department officials withheld critical information from the audit team, including reports from Blackwater employees that the company was intentionally overbilling the government and bribing foreign officials.

The company has been paid more than $1 billion for protecting U.S. diplomats in war zones.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Qui Tam, Security Contractors. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

Pentagon Legislative Proposals to Strengthen Contractor Oversight Shot Down Internally

Posted on: July 15th, 2011 at 5:21 am — by Forseti
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– () – July 14, 2011 – Did the ignore proposals by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) to increase oversight of federal contractors and save taxpayer dollars? POGO has obtained documents outlining legislative proposals submitted by the DCAA to Pentagon leadership back in September 2009—but the Department of Defense (DoD) did not submit these proposals for inclusion in either the fiscal year 2011 or fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bills. The proposals would have strengthened DCAA’s power to subpoena contractor records and would have limited the amount that government contractors could bill the government for their employees’ salaries.

In September 2009, then-DCAA Director submitted the two proposals to the DoD General Counsel and Shay Assad, a senior DoD acquisition official. However, Assad did not support the DCAA proposals, POGO has been told. Stephenson had proposed that the language be included in the fiscal year 2011 .

The two proposals to change the law were: (1) “to expand DCAA’s access to contractor records required to accomplish our mission as a remedy to a prior court imposed limitation”; and (2) “to expand the application of the limitation on allowable compensation from the top five executives to all contractor employees.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Reports & Investigations, Senate & House Committee Hearings. Tags: , , , , , , , . No Comments »

Armor Holdings Agrees to Pay $10.2 Million Criminal Penalty to Resolve Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Posted on: July 14th, 2011 at 3:25 am — by Forseti
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(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – July 13, 2011 – Inc. has entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay a $10.29 million penalty to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge James W. McJunkin of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.  

According to the non-prosecution agreement, at the time of the conduct at issue, Armor was headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.   At that time, the company manufactured security products, vehicle armor systems, protective equipment and other products primarily for use by military, law enforcement, security and corrections personnel.   On July 31, 2007, Armor was acquired by Inc. and is currently a subsidiary of BAE.  

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

DynCorp & AECOM team up & win shot at contract worth $9.7 billion

Posted on: July 13th, 2011 at 11:25 am — by Forseti
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Army awards linguistic services contract

DynCorp, a government services contractor, said Tuesday that the Department of the Army had selected its joint venture with National Security Programs — known as — as one of six providers that will compete for task orders on the $9.7 billion Defense Language Interpretation Translation Enterprise contract. ~Washington Business Journal

(UPI) – FALLS CHURCH, Va.  – July 13, 2011 – The U.S. Department of the Army has selected Global Linguist Solutions to compete for language interpretation and translation services.

The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity Defense Language Interpretation Translation Enterprise contract has a total value of $9.7 billion.

GLS and five other companies will compete for task orders under the award.

The multiple award is a hybrid contract to provide translation and interpretation services for personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision and other items and any other non-personal services necessary to perform language interpretation and translation services for Force Projection Operations mission area only.

Work under the contract will be performed around the world.

GLS has been providing translation and interpretation services to the U.S. Army in Iraq and other areas in the Persian Gulf region since 2008.

GLS is a joint venture of DynCorp International and AECOM NSP.

DynCorp has a 60-year history supporting and sustaining large-scale personnel deployments in high-threat zones and includes its current experience in recruiting and sustaining more than 3,000 employees, including linguists, in Iraq.

AECOM NSP, through its acquisition of , has 21 years of experience in recruiting, deploying and sustaining linguists in various parts of the world, including Iraq.  (Click HERE for original article)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS. Tags: , , , . No Comments »
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