-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 23, 2007 10:11:23 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: War Is Helliburton: While U.S. Troops Dying, Cheney & Co
Reveling in Blood-Money
Bribery Network to Bloat War Costs Is Alleged
By JAMES GLANZ
New York Times, July 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21contract.html
Federal investigators have uncovered what they describe as a
sweeping network of kickbacks, bribes and fraud involving at least
eight employees and subcontractors of KBR, the former Halliburton
subsidiary, in a scheme to inflate charges for flying freight into
Iraq in support of the war, according to court papers unsealed
yesterday.
The latest conviction in the cases related to the scheme came
yesterday, when a former Houston-based executive for an air-freight
carrier hired by KBR pleaded guilty in federal district court to
dispensing bribes and then lying to federal investigators. The
executive, Kevin Andre Smoot, 43, of The Woodlands, Tex., served as
a managing director for Eagle Global Logistics Incorporated, a
carrier that received a subcontract from KBR to ship the freight.
The guilty plea by Mr. Smoot is the second by an Eagle executive in
the case. But the papers describing his plea indicate that
investigators believe at least one more Eagle employee and five KBR
employees, all so far unnamed, were also involved. Mr. Smoot alone
admitted to delivering bribes, called gratuities in the legalistic
language of the court papers, to the employees of KBR on some 90
occasions between 2002 and 2005.
At the core of the case is a contract that KBR, previously known as
Kellogg, Brown & Root, won before the war to supply the American
military with food, fuel, housing and other necessities. The value
of the contract soared with the Iraq invasion, and has so far paid
KBR some $20 billion.
The company hired Eagle in a subcontract to fulfill part of that
mission, carrying military goods from Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
to Baghdad. But the scheme by the Eagle executives began in
November 2003 when a plane operated by a rival carrier, DHL, was
struck by a missile and landed in Baghdad with its left wing in
flames. The Eagle executives used that incident to charge a
fraudulent “war-risk surcharge” of 50 cents for every kilogram (2.2
pounds) of freight on its own flights, the papers say.
Between November 2003 and July 2004, Eagle made 379 flights as part
of the subcontract, charging some $13.3 million — an amount that
included $1.1 million in overcharges. It is not clear whether KBR
knew of the overcharging scheme, but the papers say that Mr. Smoot
and an Eagle subordinate delivered nearly $34,000 in gratuities to
KBR employees “to obtain or reward favorable treatment” in
connection with the contract.
According to the papers, the gratuities included “meals, drinks,
golf outings, tickets to rodeo events, baseball and football games
and other entertainment items.”
A spokeswoman for KBR, Heather L. Browne, said in a statement
yesterday that the company “in no way condones this behavior.”
“We are fully cooperating with the government’s investigation of
this matter and will continue to do so,” Ms. Browne said.
The guilty plea by Mr. Smoot was announced yesterday by Rodger A.
Heaton, the United States attorney for the Central District of
Illinois, where the Army Field Support Command, which administers
the logistics contract, is based in Rock Island.
------------
Auditor in Iraq Finds Job Gone After Exposés
November 3, 2006, New York Times
By JAMES GLANZ
Obscure provision tucked away in huge military authorization bill
calls for shutdown of federal oversight agency that exposed
corruption and mismanagement in Iraq reconstruction; investigations
by Republican lawyer Stuart W Bowen Jr have sent American
occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges,
exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected
companies like Halliburton, and discovered that military did not
properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi
security forces; Bowen's supporters say agency is being shut down
because it embarrassed Bush administration; opposition is building
on both sides of political aisle in Congress as implications of
shutdown provision become clear; neither House nor Senate version
of bill contained termination clause before bill went to conference
committee; Pres Bush signed measure two weeks ago
------------
Inquiry Widens To Bid-Rigging At Halliburton
New York Times, March 2, 2005
By SIMON ROMERO
Halliburton Co says Justice Department probe into bribery charges
related to its dealings in Nigeria has broadened to encompass
whether its executives rigged contracts with competing companies in
effort to profit illicitly from large foreign construction
projects; Halliburton reveals widened investigation into filing
with Securities and Exchange Commission, which is also conducting
inquiry into payments made in connection with natural gas complex
in Nigeria; inquiries have already led to firing last year of
Albert Jack Stanley, former chairman of Halliburton's KBR subsidiary
---------------
Ex-Halliburton Man Charged With Defrauding U.S. of $3.5 Million
March 18, 2005, New York Times
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Former employee of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root,
Jeff Alex Mazon, is indicted along with Kuwaiti businessman,
charged with defrauding United States of more than $3.5 million in
subcontract to supply fuel tankers for military operations in Iraq;
Mazon allegedly received bribe from Kuwaiti, Ali Hajazi, for
helping his firm reap $5.5 million from contract that should have
cost $2 million; Mazon has been arrested while Hijazi has not been
apprehended; Halliburton claims it discovered evidence of crime and
notified Justice Dept
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