Posted on 02/08/2007 6:53:31 PM PST by Coleus
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Debra Harrison returned to New Jersey after 17 months in Iraq with a Purple Heart and vivid descriptions of at least two brushes with death in the combat zone. A federal indictment unsealed yesterday alleged she also returned with $330,000 in stolen cash earmarked for Iraq reconstruction projects and played a key role in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that netted her a Cadillac Escalade, two handguns, prescription drugs and enough money to install a deck and hot tub at her home in Trenton.
The 25-count indictment accused Harrison and two fellow soldiers, Col. Curtis Whiteford of Utah and Lt. Col. Michael Wheeler of Wisconsin, of participating in an elaborate scam to award $8.6 million in fraudulent Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority construction contracts to Philip Bloom, a U.S.-born construction magnate who pleaded guilty in March to bribery, conspiracy and money laundering. The three soldiers, who were assigned to the CPA, received nearly $1 million in kickbacks in the scheme that ran from 2003 until 2005, federal officials said.
Harrison's husband, William Driver, who is accused of helping hide his wife's ill-gotten cash, and Seymour Morris Jr., a Cyprus-based businessman who allegedly transferred thousands of dollars from Bloom to the officers as part of the fraud, were also named in the indictment. If convicted on all charges, the five defendants each face a minimum of 20 years in prison. They are to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Trenton on Tuesday.
"These individuals ... were placed in positions of trust, used CPA funds as their own personal ATM machines," Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told reporters in Washington after the indictment was unsealed. The indictment is the most recent development in a wide-ranging federal investigation into waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money in Iraq reconstruction contracts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
If this is true and they're convicted , may they spend many many years behind bars.
thats odd. according to some bots on FR, the reconstruction efforts have been going swimmingly. Why those DOD press releases said so too!! (/sarcasm off)
Another female soldier...
Wasn't a woman in charge of Abu Ghraib?
Trenton needs the money atleast as much as Iraq. Lt. Col. Debra Harrison was just doing the work that Congresscritters won't do.
Argh!
Can you name any government endeavor that does not have fraud and abuse?
That's the reason we're all supposed to be conservatives here - because we know the dangers of big government.
How are they going to prove it. To me this guy is being targeted as a scape goat for the mishandeling of billions of loose currency.JMO
As long as she stole enough to grease the NJ Dims and the judges, she'll come out okay. She won't even have to give up her new hot tub.
Lt Col Debra Harrison and hundreds, if not thousands, of other Americans appear to be directly involved in illegal, immoral and despicable acts of disrespect, abuse, and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope that these examples of debasement are only a symptom an American moral fever, that while horrible, won't permanently destroy our country's soul."
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A.Gore-ism: Out of one (instance), many. pfft
Not a good week for officers. First the wacko space cadet and now this thief. What is going on?????
They were only following New Jersey business protocols.
yep, i only post one-subject threads.
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