Interview with Cartagena “Escort” involved in Secret Service scandal (May 2012)
Pierre Thomas and Jason Ryan – (ABC News) – May 22, 2012 – A month after the Secret Service was rocked by allegations that agents brought prostitutes to a Colombia hotel where they were preparing for a visit by President Obama, the Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that at least three of its agents are also under investigation for allegedly hiring prostitutes in Cartagena.
“Today the ringleader of the largest bribery and bid-steering scheme in the history of federal contracting accepted responsibility for his crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “For his shocking abuse of his position of power, Kerry Khan faces more than two decades in prison. The homes, cars, and jewelry he financed with bribes and kickbacks have now been returned to their rightful owner – the American taxpayer.
~ U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen
Scam Involved Steering of Government Contracts; Official’s Son Also Pleads Guilty to Charges Today
(DoJ) - WASHINGTON – Kerry F. Khan, 54, 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 $30 million in bribes and kickback payments and the planned steering of a government contract potentially worth $1 billion.
Lindell Kay And Mike Mchugh – (The Daily News) – May 15, 2012 – A wide-reaching investigation by military and civilian authorities has uncovered a criminal conspiracy within the Armed Forces to steal and sell nearly $2 million in guns and combat gear to gangs in the U.S. and foreign countries including China, military officials have confirmed.
The probe began more than a year and a half ago when agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service began to conduct undercover operations to disrupt and reduce the theft, transfer, sale and possession of stolen U.S. Government property. With the aid of Marine and Naval authorities, NCIS has recovered $1.8 million in stolen guns and combat gear to include assault rifles, night-vision goggles, flashlights and other items, military officials said.
Those involved are accused of stealing, over-ordering or otherwise obtaining equipment and selling guns locally and other gear over the Internet to people in foreign countries including China and Russia, officials said.
Peter Van Buren – (Huffington Post) – May 14, 2012 – The New York Times reports that the State Department, in the face of massive costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, slashed and may soon dump entirely “a multibillion-dollar police training program in Iraq that was to have been the centerpiece” of post-occupation US presence in Iraq. After all of five months.
In October I reported on my blog wemeantwell.com that the State Department was on Capitol Hill in front of the Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations, begging a skeptical Congress for more money for police training in Iraq. “Training” was again being cited as the cure-all for America’s apparently insatiable desire to throw money away in Mesopotamia. That latest tranche of taxpayer cash sought by State was one billion dollars a year, every year for five years, to pay police instructors and cop salaries in Iraq.
The U.S. has been training Iraqi cops for years. In fact, the U.S. government has spent $7.3 billion for Iraqi police training since 2003. Ka-ching! Anybody’s hometown in need of $7.3 billion in Federal funds? Hah, you can’t have it if you’re American, it is only for Iraq!
NEIL GORDON – (POGO) – May 10, 2012 – The U.S. Court of Federal Claims recently unsealed its opinion and order in the nearly four-year fight by KBR to recoup the $41 million it claims the U.S. Army owes under the LOGCAP III contract in Iraq. The government, in return, filed a countersuit claiming kickbacks two KBR contract managers took from a LOGCAP III subcontractor invalidates KBR’s claim.
KBR filed a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims seeking $41 million in unpaid costs and fees incurred under LOGCAP III for dining facility (DFAC) services at Camp Anaconda, Iraq from July through December 2004. The government filed a counterclaim alleging that the thousands of dollars in kickbacks KBR managers Terry Hall and Luther Holmes accepted from DFAC subcontractor Tamimi Global Company, Ltd. should cause KBR to forfeit its claims against the government under various fraud theories and the Anti-Kickback Act.
The case went to trial in late 2011. Two weeks ago, the court issued its judgment, awarding KBR $11,792,505 plus interest but also awarding the government $38,000 in civil penalties on its Anti-Kickback Act counterclaim. Interestingly, KBR’s statement about the judgment filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week does not mention the latter.
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