» Civilian Contractors Ms Sparky

Caching in and other news

Posted on: February 19th, 2012 at 3:47 pm — by Forseti

We the People Petition - War profiteering has never been so profitable for the wrongdoer and so dangerous for our troops and the taxpayer! (SIGN HERE)

First Iran exiles leave Ashraf camp in Iraq
About 400 Iranian exiles have been transferred from their long-held camp in north-western Iraq.

They are members of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) , based at Camp Ashraf since the 1980s.

It is the first step of a process that aims to see the entire 3,400-strong community expelled from Iraq.

But members of this advance party are complaining bitterly that their treatment has fallen far short of that promised by the UN and US.

The exiles, who are opposed to Iran’s Shia clerical rulers, were welcomed by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but have fallen out of favour with Iraq’s new Shia-dominated leadership.

Relations with the Iraqi government deteriorated still further last April, when an Iraqi army raid on the camp left 34 residents dead, according to the UN.

At first, they refused to countenance leaving Camp Ashraf, but the UN has been trying to broker a compromise. In December the group’s Paris-based head Maryam Rajavi agreed that a first contingent of 400 would move in what she called a “goodwill gesture”.

The Iraqi government has extended a deadline for the camp to be shut down to the end of April.

‘Degrading’
On Saturday, the first group arrived at Camp Liberty near Baghdad, but complained that they had been searched for almost an entire day before they were allowed to leave Ashraf, and had been searched again on arrival at Camp Liberty. (Click HERE for article)

Ex-soldier gets 15 years for sexual abuse of minor in 1990s
Army investigated in 1996, but no charges were filed
Casey Grove – (Anchorage Daily News) – February 17th, 2012 – An Anchorage man who admitted to sexually abusing a girl in the 1990s while stationed in the Lower 48 and Germany was sentenced Wednesday to serve 15 years in federal prison.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Politics, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Reports & Investigations, U.S. Army. Tags: AMG Marketing, Anita M. Gust, Anthony Cibelli, Antonio Bates, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Bonny Island LNG, Bruce McColm, Camp Ashraf, Carl Bernstein, CH2M Hill, Contractors, Dennis Hastert, Director Louis Freeh, DoD*, DoE, DOS*, FCPA, FCPA Violations, Fluor Hanford, Fluor*, Fort Hunter-Liggett, Fort Riley, Gen. George W. Casey, Gen. Hugh Shelton, Governor Howard Dean, Halliburton, Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Jr., KBR, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Massoud Habibion, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Mohsen Motamedian, Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), Mustafa Aljaff, MVP Micro, Neil Felahy, Online Micro LLC, Paul Kempf, People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran(PMOI), PVT Nicholas A. Solt, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, Ronald Kurjanowicz, SEC, Security and Exchange Commission. No Comments »

Former USACE program manager Michael A. Alexander & contractor plead guilty to kickback scheme

Posted on: February 15th, 2012 at 10:39 am — by Forseti

Former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Manager Pleads Guilty in Alleged $20 Million Bribery and Kickback Scheme Scam Involved Steering of Government Contracts; Contractor Also Pleads Guilty to Charges Today

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – February 13, 2012 – Michael A. Alexander, 55, a former program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, pled guilty today to federal charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a scheme that allegedly involved more than $20 million in bribes and kickback payments and the planned steering of a $780 million government contract.

The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Peggy E. Gustafson, Inspector General for the Small Business Administration (SBA); Robert E. Craig, Special Agent in Charge of the Mid-Atlantic Field Office of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS); Eric Hylton, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and James K. Podolak, Director of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s (CID) Major Procurement Fraud Unit (MPFU).

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Weapon dealer taps extremists’ defense

Posted on: February 10th, 2012 at 7:19 am — by Forseti

Nashville gun company’s owner trying to avoid trial on gun smuggling charges

Brandon Gee – (The Tennessean) – February 10, 2012 – An Englishman is borrowing the legal tactics of a radical American movement in an attempt to dodge federal gun-smuggling charges — or at least an extradition to Nashville that would force him to face the charges.

Guy Denton Savage, 42, of London, was the owner of the now-defunct Sabre Defence Industries, a Nashville-based gun manufacturer and U.S. military supplier that shuttered operations in 2010 after a raid by federal authorities. In January 2011, a federal grand jury in Nashville issued a 21-count indictment charging Savage and four of his Middle Tennessee associates with illegally smuggling guns overseas.

The four Nashville executives quickly reached plea agreements with the government, admitting their roles in the alleged conspiracy and promising prosecutors their ongoing cooperation.

Savage’s response? He sent the federal court a bill for $250 million.

The invoice — the amount of business and personal damages Savage claims to have suffered as a result of the prosecution — is included in hundreds of pages of court filings and letters that Savage has mailed from the United Kingdom to U.S. District Judge Todd J. Campbell, who is presiding over the case. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests. Tags: Guy Savage, Sabre Defence Industries, SABRE International. No Comments »

That bird won’t fly and other news

Posted on: January 30th, 2012 at 4:25 am — by Forseti

Hold that Revolving Door! Four-Star General Coming Through
Dana Liebelson – (POGO) – January 28, 2012 – The revolving door that carried former Department of Defense honcho William Lynn III to a well-paying job with an Italian defense contractor keeps on spinning – now Gen. James Cartwright, who retired as the nation’s second-highest ranking military officer in August, is following Lynn into the private sector.

Cartwright is joining the Board of Directors at Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor. Earlier in the week, DRS Technologies named Lynn as its chief executive officer. (Coincidently, before Lynn was tapped as deputy defense secretary, he was a top lobbyist for Raytheon.)

“General Cartwright’s deep understanding of defense and broad experience in military operations and matters of national security will be of great value to our Board,” Raytheon Chairman and CEO William H. Swanson said in a press release.

Well, Cartwright certainly has a deep understanding of defense: He’s a four-star general with 40 years of service in the Marine Corps, including four years as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But then there’s that sticky “great value to the Board” comment. And that’s where the problem with the well-oiled revolving door that leads from the Pentagon to the defense industry rears its ugly head. (Click HERE for article)

Former United Nations Employee Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison
(DoJ) – WASHINGTON - January 27, 2012 – Jeffery K. Armstrong, 52, of South Riding, Va., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for obtaining more than $100,000 in salary payments by fraudulently holding concurrent jobs at the United Nations (U.N.) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). He was ordered to serve a three-year term of supervised release following his sentence and to pay $128,153 in restitution.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, LOGCAP III - KBR, LOGCAP IV - KBR, Security Contractors, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Tags: Alpha Technology Group, Andrew Bigelow, Andrew J. Nusbaum, Charles R. Priestley, Department of Veterans Affairs, Dick Cheney, Dina Rasor, DoD Contractors, Donald Rumsfeld, DRS Technologies, EyakTek, Finmeccanica, Gen. James Cartwright, Giuseppe Orsi, Halliburton, Harold F. Babb, Hummingbird Aviation, Jeffery K. Armstrong, John Benson Wier III, Joshua R. Nusbaum, KBR, Kerry F. Khan, Lee A. Khan, Lee Allen Tolleson, LOGCAP, Mark S. Newman, Michael A. Alexander, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, Pankesh Patel, Pentagon, Raytheon, Retired General's Club, Robert A. Riddell, Robert L. McKinney, Ryan International Airlines, United Nations, United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), Wayne E. Kepple, William J. Lynn III. No Comments »

Former ITT employee Delmus Scott Jr. guilty of theft at APO

Posted on: January 28th, 2012 at 4:39 pm — by Forseti

Camp Buehring, Kuwait Postmaster Convicted of Stealing $565,000 in Money Orders

(FBI) – January 27, 2012 – HOUSTON – Delmus Eugene Scott, Jr., 34, of Humble, Texas, has pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government money, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. Scott was the former custodian of public effects (COPE), which is the equivalent to a postmaster in the United States.

Scott was employed by a contractor of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for providing postal services to U.S. military personnel deployed in Kuwait. Scott’s responsibilities included conducting and reporting financial transactions at the Army Post Office (APO) on a daily basis, to include the procurement and sale of U.S. Postal Service money orders. As the COPE, Scott had full autonomy to order blank money orders directly from the U.S. Postal Service distribution center.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Miscellaneous. Tags: Camp Buehring, Custodian of Public Effects (COPE), Delmus Eugene Scott Jr., ITT, K-BOSSS, Major Procurement Fraud Unit (MPFU). 4 Comments »

Flexing Muscle, Baghdad Detains U.S. Contractors

Posted on: January 16th, 2012 at 7:42 am — by Ms Sparky

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: January 15, 2012

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities have detained a few hundred foreign contractors in recent weeks, industry officials say, including many Americans who work for the United States Embassy, in one of the first major signs of the Iraqi government’s asserting its sovereignty after the American troop withdrawal last month.

The detentions have occurred largely at the airport in Baghdad and at checkpoints around the capital after the Iraqi authorities raised questions about the contractors’ documents, including visas, weapons permits and authorizations to drive certain routes. Although no formal charges have been filed, the detentions have lasted from a few hours to nearly three weeks.

The crackdown comes amid other moves by the Iraqi government to take over functions that had been performed by the United States military and to claim areas of the country it had controlled. In the final weeks of the military withdrawal, the son of Iraq’s prime minister began evicting Western companies and contractors from the heavily fortified Green Zone, which had been the heart of the United States military operation for much of the war.

Just after the last American troops left in December, the Iraqis stopped issuing and renewing many weapons licenses and other authorizations. The restrictions created a sequence of events in which contractors were being detained for having expired documents that the government would not renew. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Security Contractors. Tags: Academi, Alex Antiohos, Blackwater, Blackwater/Xe/Academi, Green Zone, International Zone, Nisour Square, Nuri Kamal al-Malik, Rep. Peter King, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Triple Canopy, U.S. Embassy Baghdad. 3 Comments »

Long island defense contractor, Thanomsak Hongthong, sentenced to two years in prison for bribery

Posted on: January 12th, 2012 at 10:53 am — by Forseti

(DoJ) – TRENTON, N.J. – January 12, 2012 – The president and CEO of a defense contracting firm in Long Island, N.Y., was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for offering a $100,000 bribe to a Department of Defense contracting officer at Fort Monmouth in N.J., U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Thanomsak Hongthong, 58, of Shoreham, N.Y., had previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to an Information charging him with bribery. Judge Thompson pronounced sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On Nov. 18, 2009, Hongthong’s company, VDH Precision Machining Corp. – a manufacturer of electrical and mechanical component parts located in Bohemia, N.Y. – was awarded a contract worth more than $1.7 million to provide spare parts to the U.S. Army. This contract was administered by the U.S. Army’s Contracting Center of the Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM) located in Fort Monmouth. CECOM develops, procures and sustains communications and information technologies systems.

Shortly after VDH was awarded this contract, Hongthong contacted the Department of Defense contracting officer at Fort Monmouth who was responsible for the contract. Hongthong told the contracting officer that one of VDH’s vendors had increased its price on one of the spare parts VDH was required to provide under the contract, and the contracting officer told Hongthong there was nothing the government could do about the situation.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests. Tags: CECOM, Fort Monmouth, Thanomsak Hongthong, VDH Precision Machining Corp.. No Comments »

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