Tag Archives: US Army-Criminal Investigative Division

Former U.S. Army Major Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme Related to Department of Defense Contracts in Kuwait

Posted on by
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Former U.S. Army Major Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme Related to Department of Defense Contracts in Kuwait
To Date, 19 Individuals Have Pleaded Guilty or Been Convicted at Trial in Ongoing Corruption Investigation

WASHINGTON – A former U.S. Army Major was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for his participation in a bribery scheme related to his activities as a contracting official in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in 2005 and 2006, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

 

James Momon Jr., 40, of Alexandria, Va., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia.   In addition to his prison term, Momon was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and pay $5.8 million in restitution, jointly and severally with co-defendants.

 

Momon pleaded guilty on Aug. 13, 2008, to two counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy.

 

According to plea documents, Momon, was involved in a criminal conspiracy to accept cash bribes from multiple U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracting firms that supplied bottled water and other goods and services to U.S. military bases in Kuwait.   In return, Momon assisted in the award of contracts as well as blanket purchase agreements (BPA) – contracts that allow DoD to order supplies on an as-needed basis at a pre-negotiated price.   Momon agreed to accept approximately $5.8 million from his co-conspirators as payment for his actions, including $1.6 million in cash and luxury items.

 

According to plea documents, Momon took over contracting duties at Camp Arifjan from former U.S. Army Major John C. Cockerham, who served as a contracting official in Kuwait in 2004 and 2005.  Cockerham, who solicited and received bribes from DoD contractors in exchange for contracts and BPAs for bottled water and other goods and services, pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy in February 2008 and was sentenced to serve 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $9 million in restitution.

 

To date, a total of 19 individuals have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial in the ongoing investigation of corrupt contracting at Camp Arifjan.

 

This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Peter C. Sprung, Eric G. Olshan, Edward J. Loya Jr. and Timothy J. Kelly of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.   The case is being investigated by special agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Army Criminal Investigation Command Division, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the FBI and the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction.

Former Employee of Army Contractor Pleads Guilty to Bribery

Posted on by
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

Posted on by
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.