Another Plea Of Guilty Set In The Case Of Iraq Bribes

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
San Antonio Express-News
March 15, 2009
Pg. 1

By Guillermo Contreras, Express-News
The sister of an Army major accused of orchestrating the largest bribery case to come out of the war in Iraq has dropped her staunch demand for a trial and now plans to plead guilty, court records show.
Lawyers for Carolyn Blake, 46, informed Senior U.S. District Judge W. Royal Furgeson a few days ago that there won't be a need for Blake's trial, which had been scheduled for March 23 in San Antonio.
Furgeson entered an order late Friday referring Blake's case to a San Antonio magistrate judge, who will take Blake's plea. Her plea hearing hadn't been scheduled as of Saturday, and her plea documents had not been filed.
Blake is charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery, conspiracy to obstruct justice and money laundering conspiracy stemming from $3.1 million in purported kickbacks she received on behalf of her brother, Maj. John L. Cockerham, 42, when both were in Kuwait.
Cockerham, who was an Army contracting officer at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, from June 2004 through December 2006, pleaded guilty to collecting $9.6 million from several companies in exchange for steering lucrative contracts to them, mainly for bottled water. Cockerham also admitted he was expecting $5.4 million more from the contract-rigging, although he never got that money.
Investigation reports said the companies include subsidiaries or affiliates of a wealthy developer from India, Dewa Projects Private Ltd.; an American-owned business operating in Kuwait, Lee Dynamics International; a large Saudi Arabian construction and logistics contractor, Allied Arms Co. Ltd.; and Total Government Allegiance/Freedom Consulting & Catering/U.S. Eagles Services Corp., companies that prosecutors claim are interwoven and run by Terry Hall, a former Army sergeant-turned-contractor.
Hall is under indictment in Atlanta, and Army Maj. James Momon, who succeeded Cockerham in Kuwait and in taking kickbacks, has pleaded guilty to accepting $5.8 million in bribes.
Investigators have moved up the command and are looking at colonels suspected of being involved. Lee Dynamics is under investigation over allegations of bribing several people in the military besides Cockerham.
Cockerham's wife, Melissa, pleaded guilty to accepting more than $1 million in bribes from some of the contractors on his behalf.
The bribes were placed in safety-deposit boxes in Kuwait and Dubai by his wife, Blake and other associates who have not been charged. Some of the money later was moved to offshore accounts in the Caribbean.
Justice Department prosecutors told Furgeson that much of the money has not been recovered.
"It is our understanding that millions of dollars are in the hands of co-conspirators overseas," prosecutor Mark Pletcher said at a Feb. 26 pretrial hearing. "There may be some money held by relatives here in the United States. We are trying to get our hands on that money."
Blake, from suburban Dallas, had stood firm about wanting a trial. Her sudden about-face comes two weeks after Furgeson, saying he feared Blake might flee before trial, revoked her bond and ordered her to join Cockerham behind bars in San Antonio. Melissa Cockerham is out on bond, living with her parents in Kentucky.
"I've never had a case quite like this, where the government seemed to assemble such a strong case against the defendant," Furgeson said at last month's hearing, minutes before ordering Blake into custody. "I've never seen a case line up so severely against a defendant."
Despite pleas from Blake and her lawyers, Ray Jackson and Tshombe Anderson of Dallas, the judge said she had reason to run: If convicted at trial, Blake might spend the rest of her life in prison. A plea deal could cut her potential prison time. The judge said he expected national and international media outlets would cover the trial.
"There's something going on, and the only thing I can figure is you won't be here" for trial, the judge told Blake.
Blake, according to Cockerham, moved to Kuwait in August 2004 - two months after he was deployed there. While there, Cockerham admitted, Blake made pickups of hundreds of thousands of dollars stuffed in shopping bags on base parking lots or other prearranged exchange points.
In a ledger investigators recovered, Blake kept track of about $3.1 million, of which she kept 10 percent, court documents said. Cockerham kept another ledger tracking the $15 million in bribes total that he planned to get.
As investigators with the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the FBI and others moved in, Cockerham told Blake and contractors to get rid of evidence and do whatever possible to stall investigators. One of the instructions Cockerham gave to Blake was to hide a safety-deposit key in her bosom, agents testified in 2007.
Furgeson told Blake the Cockerhams would testify against her, and couldn't see how Blake could dig herself out of that hole.
Though Furgeson said he was not trying to force a guilty plea, the effect it had was clear after that Feb. 26 hearing.
Blake was in tears. Her lawyers were somber. And prosecutors Pletcher and Richard B. Evans appeared satisfied. With no imminent trial, the government will not have to disclose its list of witnesses, which included Momon and others who were bribed, and it allows the Pentagon to not undergo revealing the embarrassing details of how it lost millions of dollars.
Case file
*December 2006: Army Maj. Gloria Davis kills herself in Kuwait amid a military-corruption probe. Investigators raid Fort Sam Houston home of Army Maj. John Cockerham and find ledger documenting $15 million in kickbacks he expected. Cockerham agrees to cooperate.
*July 22, 2007: Investigators arrest Cockerham and his wife, Melissa, after learning he wasn't really cooperating with them. Cockerham's sister, Carolyn Blake, is arrested July 25, 2007, on suspicion of helping him collect $3.1 million in bribes.
*Aug. 22, 2007: The Cockerhams and Blake are indicted on charges that include conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery, conspiracy to obstruct justice and money-laundering conspiracy.
*September 2007: Investigators recover $900,000 in bribes aimed for Cockerham.
*November 2007: Terry Hall of Atlanta, an ex-Army sergeant-turned-contractor, is arrested and indicted on charges of bribing Cockerham and others.
*Feb. 1, 2008: John Cockerham pleads guilty to bribery, money laundering and conspiracy to commit bribery. Melissa Cockerham pleads guilty to money laundering. Cockerham starts cooperating.
*August 2008: Army Maj. James Momon pleads guilty to taking $5.8 million in bribes, some of which he was to split with Cockerham.
*Last week: Blake's lawyers inform judge she plans to forgo trial and plead guilty.
*April 22: Cockerham to be sentenced.
 
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