Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
February 21, 2008
Pg. 5
U.S. faces hurdle of extraditing suspect for trial
By Matt Kelley, USA Today
WASHINGTON-- The government of Kuwait claims its residents and companies working as subcontractors for the U.S. military in support of the Iraq war cannot be prosecuted in the United States, according to court papers filed in one of the war's first fraud cases.
Kuwait has asked federal prosecutors to drop charges against businessman Ali Hijazi, who's accused of helping defraud the U.S. Army out of more than $3.5 million.
The charges against Hijazi are "unprecedented in the history of relations between our two nations," Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, wrote in two letters to the Justice Department. The letters were filed recently in federal court in Illinois, where Hijazi has been charged.
The case illustrates one of the hurdles prosecutors face in trying to bring war-related corruption cases: Neither Iraq nor Kuwait have treaties with the United States allowing their citizens or residents to be extradited to the United States for prosecution.
Kuwait is home to the U.S. military's main logistics and contracting hub for the Iraq war.
Hijazi, who is a Lebanese citizen, is the only Kuwaiti resident among 40 people charged in federal court with crimes related to contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, although two Kuwaiti residents and five Kuwaiti companies have been banned or suspended from doing business with the U.S. military because of Iraq-related misconduct.
Oona Hathaway, an associate professor at Yale Law School, said Kuwait's arguments to avoid prosecution in the United States seem "pretty flimsy." Prosecutors say Hijazi sent several e-mails to the USA during the alleged scam, and that would be enough to give U.S. courts control over the criminal case, Hathaway said.
The lack of extradition treaties, however, makes it much more difficult to bring non-U.S. citizens from those countries to trial, Hathaway said. That brings into play considerations such as the countries' relationships with each other and the U.S. military presence there, she said. "This is as much a political issue as it is a legal one," she said.
The indictment alleges that Hijazi, manager of a Kuwaiti company called LaNouvelle General Trading and Contracting, and Jeff Mazon, an American employee of KBR, schemed to overcharge the U.S. Army for aircraft fuel.
LaNouvelle, a subcontractor of KBR, at the time a subsidiary of Halliburton, said the fuel would cost $1.7 million in its bid.
The men inflated LaNouvelle's charges, and KBR billed the Army $5.5 million for it, the indictment says.
The indictment says Mazon received a $1 million check from Hijazi, which he unsuccessfully tried to deposit in a U.S. bank.
Mazon was arrested near Atlanta in 2005. He faces a trial scheduled for April 14 in Rock Island, Ill., home of the Army base that oversees the KBR contract.
Mazon has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, J. Scott Arthur, did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment.
Hijazi has remained in Kuwait, where authorities have refused to extradite him to the United States.
In an August letter to the Justice Department asking that the charges be dropped, Al-Sabah says Kuwaiti authorities investigated the allegations against Hijazi "and do not believe there is sufficient basis for the prosecutor's decision to try this case in the United States."
Kuwait's confidential agreement with Washington that allows U.S. troops to stay in Kuwait permits U.S. prosecution of only U.S. contractors and military personnel, not Kuwaiti people or companies, Al-Sabah said in a letter to the Justice Department in May.
Because Hijazi worked for a Kuwaiti firm under contract with KBR, not the U.S. Army, only Kuwaiti courts could handle such disputes, Al-Sabah said in both letters.
Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the department couldn't comment on the case because it is pending.
A prosecutor in the case, John Michelich, asked U.S. District Judge Joe Billy McDade not to rule on the issue unless Hijazi is arrested in the USA.
Michelich argued that a ruling would be unfair because Hijazi "seeks the benefit of a ruling from this court on the merits, without any risk to himself."
In a court filing in 2005, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greggory Walters also argued that throwing out the case "would only embolden those who seek to defraud our government through abuses of government contracts by providing them with an additional layer of protection."
McDade has not made a ruling.
February 21, 2008
Pg. 5
U.S. faces hurdle of extraditing suspect for trial
By Matt Kelley, USA Today
WASHINGTON-- The government of Kuwait claims its residents and companies working as subcontractors for the U.S. military in support of the Iraq war cannot be prosecuted in the United States, according to court papers filed in one of the war's first fraud cases.
Kuwait has asked federal prosecutors to drop charges against businessman Ali Hijazi, who's accused of helping defraud the U.S. Army out of more than $3.5 million.
The charges against Hijazi are "unprecedented in the history of relations between our two nations," Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, wrote in two letters to the Justice Department. The letters were filed recently in federal court in Illinois, where Hijazi has been charged.
The case illustrates one of the hurdles prosecutors face in trying to bring war-related corruption cases: Neither Iraq nor Kuwait have treaties with the United States allowing their citizens or residents to be extradited to the United States for prosecution.
Kuwait is home to the U.S. military's main logistics and contracting hub for the Iraq war.
Hijazi, who is a Lebanese citizen, is the only Kuwaiti resident among 40 people charged in federal court with crimes related to contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, although two Kuwaiti residents and five Kuwaiti companies have been banned or suspended from doing business with the U.S. military because of Iraq-related misconduct.
Oona Hathaway, an associate professor at Yale Law School, said Kuwait's arguments to avoid prosecution in the United States seem "pretty flimsy." Prosecutors say Hijazi sent several e-mails to the USA during the alleged scam, and that would be enough to give U.S. courts control over the criminal case, Hathaway said.
The lack of extradition treaties, however, makes it much more difficult to bring non-U.S. citizens from those countries to trial, Hathaway said. That brings into play considerations such as the countries' relationships with each other and the U.S. military presence there, she said. "This is as much a political issue as it is a legal one," she said.
The indictment alleges that Hijazi, manager of a Kuwaiti company called LaNouvelle General Trading and Contracting, and Jeff Mazon, an American employee of KBR, schemed to overcharge the U.S. Army for aircraft fuel.
LaNouvelle, a subcontractor of KBR, at the time a subsidiary of Halliburton, said the fuel would cost $1.7 million in its bid.
The men inflated LaNouvelle's charges, and KBR billed the Army $5.5 million for it, the indictment says.
The indictment says Mazon received a $1 million check from Hijazi, which he unsuccessfully tried to deposit in a U.S. bank.
Mazon was arrested near Atlanta in 2005. He faces a trial scheduled for April 14 in Rock Island, Ill., home of the Army base that oversees the KBR contract.
Mazon has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, J. Scott Arthur, did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment.
Hijazi has remained in Kuwait, where authorities have refused to extradite him to the United States.
In an August letter to the Justice Department asking that the charges be dropped, Al-Sabah says Kuwaiti authorities investigated the allegations against Hijazi "and do not believe there is sufficient basis for the prosecutor's decision to try this case in the United States."
Kuwait's confidential agreement with Washington that allows U.S. troops to stay in Kuwait permits U.S. prosecution of only U.S. contractors and military personnel, not Kuwaiti people or companies, Al-Sabah said in a letter to the Justice Department in May.
Because Hijazi worked for a Kuwaiti firm under contract with KBR, not the U.S. Army, only Kuwaiti courts could handle such disputes, Al-Sabah said in both letters.
Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the department couldn't comment on the case because it is pending.
A prosecutor in the case, John Michelich, asked U.S. District Judge Joe Billy McDade not to rule on the issue unless Hijazi is arrested in the USA.
Michelich argued that a ruling would be unfair because Hijazi "seeks the benefit of a ruling from this court on the merits, without any risk to himself."
In a court filing in 2005, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greggory Walters also argued that throwing out the case "would only embolden those who seek to defraud our government through abuses of government contracts by providing them with an additional layer of protection."
McDade has not made a ruling.