Contractors Offering Bribes & Kickbacks to Army Personnel?

It's not just contractors who are pocketing mega-money from U.S. war spending -- even some military personnel and their families are allegedly sharing in the loot through kickbacks or bribery schemes.  Friday's Washington Post said

"Maj. John L. Cockerham, a contracting officer, took up to $9.6 million in bribes from at least eight military contractors, according to court documents, and he expected to get at least another $5.4 million for giving them favorable contracts.

"'This is the largest bribery case that has come out of Iraq to date,'" said Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general.

A couple things surprise me, here.  First, the mid-level officer's name (along with that of his wife and sister, who were allegedly involved) have been plastered all over the media -- yet the Special Inspector General and the Justice Department have not publicly named the companies involved.  Last time I checked, offering a bribe is as much a crime as taking one.

Yes, the investigation is ongoing, but chances are that the contractor-employees allegedly involved in the alleged bribery schemes know that the "feds" have their eye on them, precisely because the Army officer's name is out there.

Second, I'm surprised that a $15 million scheme is "the largest bribery case" to come out of Iraq to date....

We've been at war in Iraq for four-plus years. In 2006, alone, we spent $400 billion on contractors, with 70% of that going to defense contractors (BN-Politics citing GAO). 

Are investigators focusing on small-time schemes instead of targeting bigger ones?  I have no evidence of that, but it wouldn't surprise me.  Sometimes, the federal government seems to have a warped perspective.  In the new millennium, for example, federal officials chose to target the working poor in tax-fraud cases, instead of cracking down on big companies that pay way less than the statutory tax rate (see this Nov. 2004 report for a list of such companies).

But I digress. Another thing that interested me was Maj. Cockerham's reaction when he was sent back to jail: he shouted to reporters, asking them to alert the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're suffering injustice in the name of justice," he said: "I guess we can thank the Department of Justice for this" (Washington Post).

Apparently, Major Cockerham was aware of Congress' investigation into the probable politicization of the Justice Department. It'll be interesting to see what evidence comes to light in the Iraq-war bribery investigations.

Comments

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