Ex-KBR worker pleads guilty to fuel theft

[unhappycamper]

Ex-KBR worker pleads guilty to fuel theft
Staff report
Posted : Monday Jan 28, 2008 18:07:01 EST

A former KBR employee who worked at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to conspiring to receive bribes, making false statements and filing false claims in a scheme that involved collecting money from truck drivers who were selling jet fuel to people outside the airfield, according to a press release.

Wallace A. Ward, 26, of Spring Lake, N.C., worked for Kellogg, Brown & Root. He pleaded guilty in federal court and is scheduled to be sentenced April 11. He faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

According to court documents, KBR had a contract to provide support services to the U.S. Army at Bagram. Its duties included unloading truckloads of jet fuel delivered by drivers hired by Red Star Enterprises Limited. Between May and September 2006, certain KBR employees conspired to accept payments from the drivers, who were selling their fuel to parties outside the airfield. In return, the KBR employees gave the truck drivers documents falsely showing that truckloads of fuel had been delivered to Bagram.

Ward admitted to joining the conspiracy in August 2006 and received bribes from several drivers in return for the falsified documents. According to the indictment, more than $2.1 million worth of fuel — more than 80 truckloads of more than 784,000 gallons of fuel — were diverted for sale outside the airfield between May and September 2006.

This case was investigated by special agents from Army Criminal Investigation Command and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.


Article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_fueltheft_080128w/