Army Bribery Ring Rolled Up

Courthouse News January 10, 2012

(CN) – A former Army major was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for bribery and money laundering in war contracts in Iraq.
Eddie Pressley, 41, was also ordered to forfeit $21 million, real estate and several automobiles. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins in Birmingham, Ala.
Pressley and his wife Eurica were convicted in March 2011 of conspiracy to commit bribery, eight counts of honest services fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and 11 counts of engaging in monetary transactions with criminal proceeds. No date has been set for his wife’s sentencing.
“Mr. Pressley participated in a wide-ranging scheme to steer U.S. Army contracts to particular providers in exchange for personal, illegal profit,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“Taking in nearly $3 million, he enlisted his wife to help him conceal the nature of his bribes and created phony paperwork to keep the scheme going.”

Please read the story in detail here

Jury finds Major Eddie Pressley Eurica Pressley guilty in solder bribery case

Former Army Major Eddie Pressley and wife Eurica found guilty on 22 charges

MsSparky

It took a federal jury in Alabama less than a day to convict a former US Army major and his wife of 22 counts of bribery, fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering on Tuesday.

Maj. Eddie Pressley and his wife Eurica, of Harvest, Ala., were accused of accepting $2.8 million in bribes between 2004 and 2006. Now, each faces a maximum sentence of 75 years in prison, US officials said.

The case against the Pressleys arose from a corruption probe focusing on Camp Arifjan, a US military base in Kuwait. The Pressleys were the first people in the case to go to trial.

Previously, 14 people had pleaded guilty to a mix of charges. Eight were former officers or enlisted personnel.

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) – A jury found a Harvest couple guilty of 22 counts of bribery Tuesday.

U.S. Army Major Eddie Pressley and his wife Eurica took $2.8 million in bribes from a civilian defense contractor in exchange for $9.3 million in Department of Defense contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.

Those included deals for bottled water and security fencing in Iraq and Kuwait.

The couple bought cars, property and homes with the money, and set up bank accounts to launder the payoffs in Dubai, the Caymans and in Madison. Please see the original here

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Maj Eddie Pressley, Eurica Pressley go on Trial Today

Updated:  Jury selection begins

Brian Lawson The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, AL — A couple from Harvest are scheduled to go on trial this morning in Decatur on nearly $3 million in federal bribery and money laundering charges stemming from Army contract work in Kuwait and Iraq.

U.S. Army Maj. Eddie Pressley, an Army contracting officer, is charged with taking $2.8 million in bribes from a defense contractor in exchange for approving an open-ended contract to provide bottled water and fences in Kuwait and Iraq.

Prosecutors allege the deal occurred while Pressley was serving in Kuwait from October 2004 to October 2005.

The contractor, Terry Hall of Georgia, pleaded guilty to bribery and money laundering last year. Hall allegedly received $9.3 million from the arrangement with Pressley and a total of $21 million in contract work in dealings with other Army officials who have also been charged in the case.

Along with the bribery charges, the government charged the couple with money laundering of the bribery funds. They allege Mrs. Pressley set up bank accounts in Madison, Dubai and the Cayman Islands, between 2004 and 2007, moved money around and later bought property and cars.

The case is to be heard in the U.S. District Court in Decatur, before U.S. District Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins.

The prosecution is being led by the U.S. Department of Justice’s of Public Integrity Section, which operates out of Washington, D.C.

Eddie Pressley is being represented by attorney Clyde E. Riley of Birmingham. Eurica Pressley’s attorneys are Robert Joe McLean and Thomas J. Spina, also of Birmingham, according to court records.

Ex-military contractor gets prison for bribery

Chron AP Texas News

HOUSTON — A former senior employee of a U.S. military employee got a three-year-and-one-month prison sentence for her part in a conspiracy to bribe Army contracting officials at a U.S. base in Kuwait.

Dorothy Ellis was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to bribe public officials. U.S. District Judge David Hittner of Houston also ordered the 53-eyar-old Texas City woman to serve three years of probation and pay $360,000 in restitution. She’s the 14th of 16 people charged in the case to plead guilty.

Maj. Eddie Pressley and his wife Eurica Pressley are scheduled for trial in a Decatur, Ala., federal court Jan. 31. They allegedly took $2.8 million in bribes from a contractor who delivered bottled water and building fences in Kuwait and Iraq.

FORMER SENIOR EMPLOYEE WITH U.S. MILITARY CONTRACTOR PLEADS GUILTY TO BRIBERY SCHEME RELATED TO CONTRACTS IN SUPPORT OF IRAQ WAR

Agrees to Forfeit $360,000 to U.S. Government

WASHINGTON – A former senior employee of a U.S. military contractor pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to pay $360,000 in bribes to U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at a U.S. military base in Kuwait, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.

According to court documents filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Dorothy Ellis, 53, of Texas City, Texas, was employed by former U.S. military contractor Terry Hall. As Hall’s most senior employee, Ellis’s responsibilities included serving as the liaison between Hall and U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at Camp Arifjan, a U.S. military base in Kuwait.

From the spring of 2004 through November 2007, Hall operated and had an interest in several companies, including Freedom Consulting and Catering Co. (FCC) and Total Government Allegiance (TGA). At various times during this period, these companies provided goods and services to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and its components based on a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to deliver bottled water and a contract to construct a security fence in Kuwait and elsewhere.

A BPA is a type of contract by which the DoD agrees to pay a contractor a specified price for a particular good or service. Based on the BPA, the DoD orders the supplies on an as-needed basis. The contractor is then obligated to deliver the supplies ordered at the price agreed upon in the BPA. The term for such an order by the DoD is a “call.”

According to court documents, Hall obtained the calls made under the bottled water BPA and fence contract by bribing certain U.S. Army contracting officers, including former Majors James Momon and Christopher Murray. Hall, assisted by Ellis and Hall’s business partner, paid Momon approximately $330,000 and paid Murray approximately $30,000. In exchange for these bribe payments, from January 2006 through May 2006, Momon arranged for the DoD to pay Hall’s companies more than $6.4 million through the bottled water BPA, and Murray assisted in the award of the security fence contract.

Ellis admitted that she participated in the bribery scheme by providing Momon and Murray access to secret bank accounts established on their behalf in the Philippines, which enabled Hall and others to transfer bribe payments to them. Ellis also admitted that she obtained confidential Army contract pricing information from Momon that was designed to give Hall an unlawful advantage in the bidding process for an ice contract from the DoD. In exchange for her assistance in the bribery scheme, Ellis received a $100,000 “bonus” from Hall in August 2006.

The charge of bribery conspiracy carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine. Under the plea agreement, Ellis agreed to forfeit $360,000 to the government. Sentencing has been scheduled for Dec. 1, 2010, before U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner.

The case against Ellis arose out of an investigation into corruption at the Kuwait contracting office at Camp Arifjan, which has led to charges against 15 individuals, to date. Of those 15 defendants, 13 have pleaded guilty, with some already serving prison sentences. For example, on Dec. 2, 2009, former U.S. Army Major John Cockerham was sentenced to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $9.6 million in restitution. On Aug. 13, 2009, Momon pleaded guilty to receiving approximately $1.6 million in bribes and agreed to pay $5.7 million in restitution. On Dec. 17, 2009, Murray was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $245,000 in restitution.

On Aug. 11, 2010, Wajdi Birjas, a former DoD contract employee, pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy in connection with his payment of tens of thousands of dollars worth of bribes to Army contracting officers, including Murray, Momon and a senior procurement non-commissioned officer. Birjas also pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy arising out of his participation in a scheme to transport $250,000 of Momon’s bribe proceeds from Kuwait to the United States. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2011.

On Feb. 18, 2010, Hall pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy and agreed to forfeit $15.7 million to the U.S. government in connection with his payment of more than $3 million in bribes to Cockerham, Momon, Murray and former U.S. Army Major Eddie Pressley. The case against Hall’s co-defendants, Eddie Pressley and his wife Eurica Pressley, is scheduled for trial Jan. 24, 2011, in Decatur, Ala.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Edward J. Loya, Jr. and Peter C. Sprung of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. The case is being investigated by special agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Army Criminal Investigation Command Division, the FBI and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Today’s plea represents the Department of Justice’s commitment to protect U.S. taxpayers from procurement fraud through its creation of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force. The National Procurement Fraud Initiative announced in October 2006, is designed to promote early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs. The investigation is ongoing.  Original Story here