Arrests in Afghanistan contracting scandal
Filed under: Contract Awards, Justice Department, U.S. Air Force, crime, logistics
Two Air Force personnel and three Afghan nationals were arrested over charges that bribes were paid to win contracts for military construction in Afghanistan. Two of the Afghans also resided in the United States. Supposedly a bribe of $30,000 was paid to the US Air Force officials to win a $1 M construction contract in 2004. Another bribe was paid later to win a road contract. Several US military and civilian personnel have been arrested and charged with contract related corruption in Kuwait, Iraq and the United States. With the amount of money going to the efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq there is always a chance for such crime.
There is more at The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch.com site.
Defense companies busted for trying to steal secrets related to fuel contracts
Two Americans living in Prague, Czech Republic were arrested and charged with an attempt to steal “information related to contract to supply fuel” according to this press release on Rueters. The Justice Department announced the arrests today. The two men had recruited an American living in Maryland to steal confidential information related to bids and pricing from a US company that provided fuel and services to DoD. There have been many cases of one contractor through judicious hiring acquiring knowledge of another companies secrets. Sometimes the employee just brings documents with him, as happened with Boeing and Lockheed when the were competing on a US Air Force space launch vehicle contract.





