Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
August 13, 2008
Pg. 3
Officials Suspect More Cases of Fraud In Iraq and Kuwait
By Joel Millman
A third U.S. Army officer is set to plead guilty in a corruption scheme involving supplies to U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq, in a case investigators now believe may grow to include more than 100 co-conspirators.
Maj. James Momon Jr., 36 years old, a career U.S. Army officer who served in Kuwait during the Iraq war, plans to plead guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington to accepting bribes or arranging kickbacks from U.S. and Kuwaiti defense contractors selling items such as bottled drinking water and performing maintenance at military installations in Kuwait and Iraq, his lawyer says, after negotiating a plea agreement in June.
A case that once was thought to involve only a handful of contractors and military officers seems to be widening. The case is one of several probes into contracts supporting U.S. troops in Iraq.
The prosecutors' case against Maj. Momon as described in court records alleges he and his colleagues at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait instigated corruption by recruiting retired soldiers to seek deals in which kickbacks were a condition. The charges allege that the conspiracy's principal operators arranged to continue their scheme even after their tours of duty in the Middle East ended.
'A Boatload of People'
"We're talking about a boatload of people actively engaged in a conspiracy," said a U.S. official familiar with the case. This official believes there may be as many as 30 U.S. Army officers involved and "70 or more of their relatives and associates engaged as facilitators."
Criminal charges against Maj. Momon allege that contracts ranging from $3 million to $20 million each were awarded in which military officers conspired to siphon off as much as 10% of each deal. In one case, prosecutors allege, Maj. Momon arranged a $15 million bottled-water contract after the contracting company agreed to pay 50 cents per case back to Maj. Momon, with half those proceeds going on to Maj. John Lee Cockerham Jr. in Texas. Maj. Cockerham, who has pleaded guilty in the case, preceded Maj. Momon as a contracting officer at Camp Arifjan.
Maj. Momon didn't return calls seeking comment. "Mr. Momon regrets his participation in this matter," said his attorney, J. Burkhardt Beale. "He always had an honorable career."
Since 2005, U.S. authorities have opened 361 investigations related to contract fraud in Iraq and Kuwait, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Sixty-one of those probes remain open.
Taken altogether, the number of cases and emerging scale provide the clearest evidence yet that controls were inadequate throughout the military supply chain as billions of dollars in contracts were dispensed to support the U.S. military effort in Iraq.
This latest Kuwait supply scandal broke a year ago when investigators from the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service identified Maj. Cockerham, who had worked in the Army's contracting office at Camp Arifjan. Maj. Cockerham, who served three tours in Kuwait, was arrested in Texas, together with his wife, Melissa, and a sister, Carolyn Blake. Mr. and Mrs. Cockerham have since entered guilty pleas on federal charges that they accepted millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. Ms. Blake has maintained she is innocent. She has a trial date set for October. Her lawyer didn't respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
One other officer named in the probe, Lt. Col. Levonda Joey Selph, pleaded guilty in June to lesser charges involving improperly accepting gifts from a Kuwait-based contractor. Another officer, Maj. Gloria Davis, took her life in late 2006 right after Army investigators confronted her with evidence of participation in the conspiracy.
Culling Through Contracts
Arrests related to the Cockerham case were expected to be completed months ago. But now government agents are culling through dozens of additional contracts as Army officers who have pleaded guilty lead investigators to new suspects. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Maj. Momon will provide testimony.
Court documents in Maj. Momon's case identify the participant in the bottled-water contract only as Contractor One. However, in a separate case awaiting trial in Washington, Terry Hall of Rex, Ga., a 42-year-old former U.S. Army sergeant, is facing bribery and conspiracy charges in an identical set of incidents. Mr. Hall is contesting the charges, according to court documents. He didn't respond to requests for comment. His attorney, Tony Miles of the federal public defender's office, said in an email that he advised his client not to speak on the case.
Investigators in the two cases allege that Mr. Hall met with Majors Cockerham and Momon in Kuwait in late 2005. The next year, Mr. Hall's companies negotiated bottled-water contracts with the Department of Defense for total payments of $8 million.
During that period, the prosecutors' court filings allege, Mr. Hall registered a company called Omega Construction & Support Services to "provide a means to funnel bribe payments to [James] Momon without detection." To receive those bribes, investigators say, Mr. Hall opened bank accounts in the Philippines for Maj. Momon and one other U.S. Army officer, who isn't identified.
Besides money wired to the overseas bank accounts, prosecutors' court documents allege Maj. Momon received at least one cash payment of $100,000 from Mr. Hall in Kuwait, then a second payment of $100,000 when they met at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport a few weeks later. Court papers identify other payments, including payments of $400,000, $10,000 and $800,000 from three other contractors.
Maj. Momon as recently as last month was still considered on active duty. His attorney said he was "in the process" of leaving the military. Under sentencing guidelines, he faces as many as five years in prison.
Mr. Momon grew up in a military family. He spent part of his childhood in Germany, where his father was deployed. He later attended The Citadel, the prestigious South Carolina military academy.
"I just can't believe the charges against him; he was always a straight-laced guy," said Tom Barnes, one of several of Mr. Momon's classmates at the Osterholz American High School in Germany who remembered him as an outstanding student.
Leslie Norman contributed to this article.
August 13, 2008
Pg. 3
Officials Suspect More Cases of Fraud In Iraq and Kuwait
By Joel Millman
A third U.S. Army officer is set to plead guilty in a corruption scheme involving supplies to U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq, in a case investigators now believe may grow to include more than 100 co-conspirators.
Maj. James Momon Jr., 36 years old, a career U.S. Army officer who served in Kuwait during the Iraq war, plans to plead guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington to accepting bribes or arranging kickbacks from U.S. and Kuwaiti defense contractors selling items such as bottled drinking water and performing maintenance at military installations in Kuwait and Iraq, his lawyer says, after negotiating a plea agreement in June.
A case that once was thought to involve only a handful of contractors and military officers seems to be widening. The case is one of several probes into contracts supporting U.S. troops in Iraq.
The prosecutors' case against Maj. Momon as described in court records alleges he and his colleagues at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait instigated corruption by recruiting retired soldiers to seek deals in which kickbacks were a condition. The charges allege that the conspiracy's principal operators arranged to continue their scheme even after their tours of duty in the Middle East ended.
'A Boatload of People'
"We're talking about a boatload of people actively engaged in a conspiracy," said a U.S. official familiar with the case. This official believes there may be as many as 30 U.S. Army officers involved and "70 or more of their relatives and associates engaged as facilitators."
Criminal charges against Maj. Momon allege that contracts ranging from $3 million to $20 million each were awarded in which military officers conspired to siphon off as much as 10% of each deal. In one case, prosecutors allege, Maj. Momon arranged a $15 million bottled-water contract after the contracting company agreed to pay 50 cents per case back to Maj. Momon, with half those proceeds going on to Maj. John Lee Cockerham Jr. in Texas. Maj. Cockerham, who has pleaded guilty in the case, preceded Maj. Momon as a contracting officer at Camp Arifjan.
Maj. Momon didn't return calls seeking comment. "Mr. Momon regrets his participation in this matter," said his attorney, J. Burkhardt Beale. "He always had an honorable career."
Since 2005, U.S. authorities have opened 361 investigations related to contract fraud in Iraq and Kuwait, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Sixty-one of those probes remain open.
Taken altogether, the number of cases and emerging scale provide the clearest evidence yet that controls were inadequate throughout the military supply chain as billions of dollars in contracts were dispensed to support the U.S. military effort in Iraq.
This latest Kuwait supply scandal broke a year ago when investigators from the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service identified Maj. Cockerham, who had worked in the Army's contracting office at Camp Arifjan. Maj. Cockerham, who served three tours in Kuwait, was arrested in Texas, together with his wife, Melissa, and a sister, Carolyn Blake. Mr. and Mrs. Cockerham have since entered guilty pleas on federal charges that they accepted millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. Ms. Blake has maintained she is innocent. She has a trial date set for October. Her lawyer didn't respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
One other officer named in the probe, Lt. Col. Levonda Joey Selph, pleaded guilty in June to lesser charges involving improperly accepting gifts from a Kuwait-based contractor. Another officer, Maj. Gloria Davis, took her life in late 2006 right after Army investigators confronted her with evidence of participation in the conspiracy.
Culling Through Contracts
Arrests related to the Cockerham case were expected to be completed months ago. But now government agents are culling through dozens of additional contracts as Army officers who have pleaded guilty lead investigators to new suspects. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Maj. Momon will provide testimony.
Court documents in Maj. Momon's case identify the participant in the bottled-water contract only as Contractor One. However, in a separate case awaiting trial in Washington, Terry Hall of Rex, Ga., a 42-year-old former U.S. Army sergeant, is facing bribery and conspiracy charges in an identical set of incidents. Mr. Hall is contesting the charges, according to court documents. He didn't respond to requests for comment. His attorney, Tony Miles of the federal public defender's office, said in an email that he advised his client not to speak on the case.
Investigators in the two cases allege that Mr. Hall met with Majors Cockerham and Momon in Kuwait in late 2005. The next year, Mr. Hall's companies negotiated bottled-water contracts with the Department of Defense for total payments of $8 million.
During that period, the prosecutors' court filings allege, Mr. Hall registered a company called Omega Construction & Support Services to "provide a means to funnel bribe payments to [James] Momon without detection." To receive those bribes, investigators say, Mr. Hall opened bank accounts in the Philippines for Maj. Momon and one other U.S. Army officer, who isn't identified.
Besides money wired to the overseas bank accounts, prosecutors' court documents allege Maj. Momon received at least one cash payment of $100,000 from Mr. Hall in Kuwait, then a second payment of $100,000 when they met at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport a few weeks later. Court papers identify other payments, including payments of $400,000, $10,000 and $800,000 from three other contractors.
Maj. Momon as recently as last month was still considered on active duty. His attorney said he was "in the process" of leaving the military. Under sentencing guidelines, he faces as many as five years in prison.
Mr. Momon grew up in a military family. He spent part of his childhood in Germany, where his father was deployed. He later attended The Citadel, the prestigious South Carolina military academy.
"I just can't believe the charges against him; he was always a straight-laced guy," said Tom Barnes, one of several of Mr. Momon's classmates at the Osterholz American High School in Germany who remembered him as an outstanding student.
Leslie Norman contributed to this article.