Thursday, November 17, 2005

New Iraq Rebuilding Scandal:Massive Bid-Rigging

MSNBC: A criminal complaint unsealed in fedrl court on Weds alleges a web of corruption and bid rigging in Iraq by officials who worked with the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, the US led agency that ran Iraq for more than a yr after the 03 invasion. The complaint accuses a US-Romanian businessman, Philip Bloom, of paying officials "bribes, kickbacks and gratuities, amounting to at least $200,000 per month," in order to obtain reconstruction contracts through a bid-rigging scam. According to the complaint, Bloom "conspired w/US govt contract employees and military officials to obtain fraudulent govt contracts." The complaint says one of the US officials was the comptroller for the region in Iraq based in Hillah and controlled $82 million in cash. Hmm... I guess demoted whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse of the Army Corps of Engineers was dead-on about those shady no-bid contracts, huh?
Posted by Tina :: 12:15 AM :: 0 Comments:

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