KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | DECEMBER 2, 2012 – Two former contractors on a recently completed U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project in Afghanistan have been arrested on fraud charges. The action came as part of what U.S. Government officials described as an on-going campaign against fraud and waste in U.S. development efforts in Afghanistan.
Abdul Khabir Kakar and Noor Anwarzai were arrested by the Afghan Attorney General’s Anti Corruption Unit on charges of conspiring to steal approximately $10,000 of USAID’s funds in 2011. The two former employees are accused of falsifying official documentation from the Afghan Ministry of Finance (MOF), indicating that USAID’s implementing partner had paid the appropriate local property taxes for the office building used on the project.
Abdul Khabir Kakar was the Chief of Party, and Noor Anwarzai was the Finance Manager for USAID’s Afghanistan Farm Service Alliance (AFSA) project, implemented by Citizen’s Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA). The arrested individuals were not U.S. government employees, but employees of the implementing partner.
The arrests were made by the Afghan National Police and investigators from the Afghan Attorney General’s Anti Corruption Unit, with the assistance of the USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Commending the work of those involved, USAID OIG’s Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Lisa Risley, cited the strong partnership between USAID OIG and Afghan authorities in preventing fraud, waste and abuse within USAID programs and operations in Afghanistan, adding that this level of cooperation has helped protect U.S. taxpayer dollars in Afghanistan.
As Afghan nationals, both Kakar and Anwarzai will be facing prosecution in an Afghan court on possible criminal charges carrying a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison and possible financial penalties.
Category Archives: Overseas Contingency Operations
California Man Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison For Conspiracy to Defraud USAID of $386,279 – Admitted Scheme to Embezzle Agency Funds Meant for Global Health
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information Contact:
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 Public Affairs
(202) 252-6933
WASHINGTON – Everett Lipscomb Jr., 42, of Aliso Viejo, Calif., has been sentenced
to 15 months in prison on a charge stemming from his role in a conspiracy to embezzle more than $386,000 from a federal program meant to address global health problems.
The sentence was announced by Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of
Columbia, and Michael G. Carroll, Deputy Inspector General for the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).
Lipscomb pled guilty in March 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail
fraud, a federal felony. He was sentenced on Nov. 5, 2012 by the Honorable Beryl A. Howell in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. As part of his sentence, Lipscomb was ordered to pay full restitution of $386,279 to USAID. Lipscomb also consented to an order forfeiting any property he owned up to that amount. As indicated in court filings, the government has already seized about $49,000 in proceeds from the scheme from other coconspirators. Upon completion of his prison term, Lipscomb will be placed on two years of supervised release.
As part of his plea, Lipscomb admitted that he conspired together with Mark Adams, a
former deputy director at a private contractor that did business with USAID, and Adams’s wife, Latasha Bell. Lipscomb admitted that Adams used his position at the contracting company to submit and approve false and fraudulent invoices and thereby obtain money.
In Lipscomb’s case, the bogus invoices claimed amounts due for services from Octopus
Limited Audio and Visual, a company controlled by Lipscomb. However, neither Lipscomb nor Octopus – or anyone else – performed the work and services claimed on the invoices. Lipscomb admitted that between April 2008 and August 2010, he received payments from the USAID contracting company totaling $386,279. Of that amount, Lipscomb kept $157,372 for himself and passed the remainder, $228,907, back to Adams and Bell.
Lipscomb further admitted that the fraudulent bills were paid with money that should
have been used for USAID’s global health program. The program addresses major global issues, including HIV/AIDS. At sentencing, Judge Howell noted that the company that employed Adams was seriously impacted by the crime. The company lost its contract with USAID and several employees lost their jobs as a result.
Adams, 44, and Bell, 36, of Fort Washington, Md., pled guilty last month to their roles in
the conspiracy. Adams admitted that the scheme involved more than $1.084 million in
fraudulent payments through such fake invoices between 2006 and 2010. Adams and Bell used the payments to complete an extensive renovation of their home and to buy luxury automobiles.
Adams and Bell are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 14, 2012, also before Judge
Howell. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Adams faces a sentence of up to 51 to 63 months of incarceration. Under the plea agreement, Bell agreed to a sentence of home confinement.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen and Deputy Inspector General Carroll
commended the work of the special agents from the USAID Office of Inspector General, which investigated the case. They also thanked those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialists Krishawn Graham and Nicole Wattelet, Forensic Accountant Crystal Boodoo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Saler, who handled forfeiture issues, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Hooks, who is prosecuting the case.
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Former Employee of Army Contractor Pleads Guilty to Bribery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Former Employee of Army Contractor Pleads Guilty to Bribery for Facilitating Theft by Trucking Contractor in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON – A Houston woman pleaded guilty today to bribery charges for her role in a scheme to fraudulently bill the U.S. Army for trucking services in Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Diyana Montes, 29, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in the District of Columbia to one count of bribery.
According to court documents, from approximately April 2008 through December 2008, Montes was an employee of Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a private contractor with operations in Afghanistan. Montes worked at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, where KBR held a contract with the United States.
KBR’s contract involved providing services to the Army’s Movement Control Branch (MCB). The MCB’s mission was to contract with local Afghan trucking companies to transport U.S. military equipment, fuel and other supplies throughout Afghanistan. As part of this mission, the MCB coordinated requests from various U.S. military units for trucking services and assigned those requests to particular contractors. Each trucking request generated various specific documents, including “transportation movement requests” (TMR), which authorized the use of trucks.
According to court documents, Montes’s duties included receiving TMRs from various contractors and reconciling any discrepancies between the amount of services described in the TMRs and the amount of services the contractors claimed in their invoices. Once Montes reviewed the documents and determined they were accurate, she would pass them on to other contracting personnel, who would rely on her review in approving payments to the trucking company.
On numerous occasions, according to court documents, Montes received and reviewed TMRs and invoices for services allegedly provided by Afghanistan Trade Transportation (ATT), a trucking company contracted by the U.S. Army, that fraudulently represented that ATT provided services that Montes knew were not in fact performed. According to Montes’s plea agreement, she knew the invoices from ATT contained service claims that were not accurate, and she passed them along for payment with the knowledge that the billings were fraudulent.
According to her plea agreement, from approximately May 2008 through December 2008, in return for her knowingly handling the fraudulent TMRs and invoices, Montes received from ATT approximately $50,000, consisting of $35,000 wired to her personal bank account in the United States and another $15,000 in cash paid to her on several occasions in Afghanistan.
This case is being prosecuted by Special Trial Attorney Mark H. Dubester of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and former Fraud Section Trial Attorney Mark Pletcher, currently of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. The case was investigated by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI.
Army Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Facilitating Theft of Fuel in Afghanistan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Army Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Facilitating Theft of Fuel in Afghanistan
Second Guilty Plea Stemming from an Investigation of Fuel Theft at FOB Fenty in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON – U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher Weaver pleaded guilty today to bribery charges for his role in the theft of fuel at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Fenty, near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer.
Weaver, 29, of Fort Carson, Colo., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger in the District of Colorado to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of bribery.
Weaver’s plea is the second guilty plea arising from an investigation into fuel thefts at FOB Fenty. On Aug. 3, 2012, Weaver’s co-conspirator Jonathan Hightower, 30, of Houston, pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme.
According to court documents, from approximately January 2010 through June 2010, Weaver and Hightower were involved in overseeing the delivery of fuel from FOB Fenty to other military bases. As part of this process, documents generally described as “transportation movement requests” (TMRs) were created, which authorized the movement of the fuel. Weaver pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy in which fraudulent TMRs, which purported to authorize the transport of fuel from FOB Fenty to other military bases, were created even though no legitimate fuel transportation was required. After the trucks were filled with fuel, these fraudulent documents were used by the drivers of the fuel trucks at FOB Fenty’s departure checkpoint in order to justify the trucks’ departures from FOB Fenty. In truth, according to court documents, the fuel was simply stolen.
Weaver pleaded guilty to receiving payments from a representative of a military contractor that was responsible for transporting fuel in Afghanistan in exchange for facilitating the theft of approximately 100 fuel trucks. According to Weaver’s signed plea agreement, the loss to the United States as a result of the scheme was in excess of $1.5 million. According to court documents, Weaver sent cash back from Afghanistan to the United States, in part, by mailing the money inside a stuffed bear.
According to court documents, Hightower worked in Afghanistan as an employee of FLUOR Inc., a U.S. government contractor, from January 2010 to June 2010, where he served as a petroleum supply specialist and was responsible for receiving and disbursing fuel – primarily jet fuel known as JP-8 – for use at FOB Fenty or for transport to other military bases. According to court documents, Hightower, Weaver and others would receive cash from a representative of a military contractor that was responsible for transporting fuel in Afghanistan, and the money would be apportioned among the conspirators.
Hightower pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William J. Martinez in the District of Colorado to two counts of conspiracy to receive bribes – one count involving his conspiracy with Weaver, and another count involving his conspiracy with another alleged co-conspirator at FOB Fenty. Hightower admitted facilitating the theft of over 100 trucks of fuel and a loss to the United States in excess of $1.5 million.
The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark W. Pletcher of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, formerly of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Special Trial Attorney Mark H. Dubester of the Fraud Section. The cases were investigated by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction; the Department of the Army, Criminal Investigations Division; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the FBI; and the Department of the Air Force, Office of Special Investigations. Valuable assistance was also provided by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.