In 2011, two former employees for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and an official from a small business Eyak Technology LLC were indicted on federal charges that included bribery, wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful kickbacks. In order to help better understand the details of the charges against these men, a closer look at the responsibility the individuals involved held with regard to the federal government is paramount. The suspects from USACE; Alexander Michael and Kerry Khan were programs managers at the time of said crime. Alexander Michael who was employed with USACE since 1979, was responsible for the USACE Directorate of Contingency Operations and had authority to secure funding for the USACE projects, this included …show more content…
Eyak Technology LLC provides infrastructure and security systems along with communications and information technology assistance. The corruption scheme involved a US Armed Corps of Engineers contract; the Technology for Infrastructure, Geospatial and Environmental Requirements (TIGER) which is a contract authorized for use by government agencies and departments to purchase products and services. EyakTek was the prime contractor for the TIGER contract and was used as a vehicle for the scheme. Under the TIGER contract agencies and departments within the federal government are not required to compare the contract to another contract before submitting an invoice for products and services therefore leaving it open ended or “indefinite” as documented (FBI, …show more content…
The money laundering process happens in three stages; the illegal activity that bring in the money places it in the criminals hands in this case Khan, Alexander and Babb. Then, the launderer, (Babb) passes the money through a complex scheme of transactions, in this case Eyak Technology, to obscure who initially received the money from the criminal enterprise. Lastly, the scheme returns the money to the launderer in an obscure and indirect way. Kerry Khan was also responsible for engaging in unlawful kickbacks. A kickback occurs when a certain percentage of income is given to an individual as payment for having made the income possible in the first place. Under federal law kickbacks that involve government officials or funds that are provided by the government are illegal. Some kickbacks fall under the bribery statute 18 USC § 201, such as those between a contractor and a government official. Other kickbacks are prosecuted under federal statute 41 USC § 51–58 which is for private contractors working under a federal contract, this statute stems from what is known as the Anti-Kickback Act of 1986 (DOJ,
It took for the losing in the case with two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for the government to realize that there was a problem within their justice system. If they couldn’t take down two people accused of deceiving investors, how did they assume that they would be able to take down numerous high-end executives within Wall Street? So in fall 2009, over a year after the initial hit of the financial crisis, Obama introduced the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task to oversee prosecution for fraud and financial crime a week before the hearing to discuss ’08 financial crisis prosecution. With such a department now put in place, the government believed they could go back and review the “fraud” that took place within Wall Street years before and place a blame somewhere, revealing another flaw of the US government and justice system. The government wasn’t taking the cases as serious as they should have. They weren’t finding ways to filter through Due Diligence underwriters and they weren’t calling forth whistleblowers. They were losing the case before it could even
McCraw, David, and Stephen Gikow. “The End to a Unspoken Bargain? National Security and Leaks in a Post-Pentagon Papers World.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 48.2 (2013): 473-509. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
...in the cover-up; several people shredded documents, lied under oath and obstructed justice. At least if the participants in the scandal had been effectively punished, perhaps it would have curbed some of the power held by the executive branch. But the lack of consequence sends a dangerous message: if staff members of the executive branch are able to accomplish so much behind America’s back and are not held responsible for their actions, pardoned by the president, part of the executive branch itself, then the executive branch is far more powerful than Americans realize. What the government tells us it is doing may not actually be true, and at the end of the day there is nobody to enforce the laws on the members of the executive branch. In this regard, the Iran-Contra affair exposed the true, relentless power of the executive branch – and how little we know about it.
The CIA’s 50-year history of smuggling drugs into America is generating hatred for the United States throughout the world. Like Pontius Pilate, CIA washes their hands of the human tragedies and the corruption of government offices. They do this by remaining and by refusing to recognize the evidence, supporting corruption. For the past 50 years, the CIA has abused its power by deliberately drugging and corrupting America; and therefore should be prosecuted.
The Iraqi shooting by Blackwater guards was not only extremely unethical. This decision impacted public impressions of all private security companies operating overseas. The Blackwater guards felt untouchable because they had the backing of the State Department, which included almost no rules. “Many U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives said they came to see Blackwater as untouchable, ...
Everyday citizens often live unaware of their government’s inner workings. The knowing of political espionage is often too heavy of a subject to be inducted in conversation. True, prima facie, modest twists and turns of information may not be considered substantial, but this inconsideration leaves much to be uncontrolled. It is easy for political leaders to become power crazed, to not realize the massive implications that come of their actions. Only after all is said and done do the people actually realize their government is an opaque mask of deception. The Watergate Scandal substantially impacted Americans’ trust in their government.
The forms of bribery and embezzlement have been around longer than dirt. The earliest white-collar crime, that was documented, dates back to the 15th century in England. The law was forced upon society in 1473 in response to embezzlement, or also recognized as the Carrier’s Case. In this situation, a wool representative gave a man his trust in transporting. Unfortunately, the man ended up attempting to steal some of the wool for himself. Although, these terms were known around this time, the concept of the crime wasn’t well understood until around the 20th century ("History of White-Collar Crime”).
The current administration and the American public criticize military and civilian intelligence on a daily basis. The multiple insider threat scandals over recent years come to mind, but the atrocities at Abu Ghraib will forever stand as some of the most severe. Three main factors resulted in the amoral treatment at Abu Ghraib, substandard working conditions, conflicting leadership, and a lack of moral code. The gruesome events will forever stain the reputation of the Military Intelligence (MI) Corps.
The cons to the argument for saying the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is obsolete is discussed in the article With Wal-Mart Claims, Greater Attention on a Law by Charlie Savage. In this article Charlie Savage argues that the FCPA has always been a useful tool in stopping corruption but in recent years with companies becoming more globalized other countries gradually adopted similar laws, the United States has started to enforce it more strictly. The dollar amount of fines imposed by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission has increased even more, including a record-setting $800 million paid by Siemens in 2008. Enforcement under the act has soared, from just two enforcement actions in 2004 to 48 in 2010. There are currently at least 100 open investigations, specialists estimate.
On September 16th of 2007, shortly after noon, in a place called Nisour Square located in the Mansour District in the Iraq capital of Baghdad, a heavily armed Blackwater Personnel Security Detail convoy consisting of four armored vehicles mounted with 7.62-millimeter machine guns made its way through the square as Iraqi traffic officers tried to control the busy traffic (Zagorin, Bennet, 2007) . Between the convoy getting special traffic rules to prevent attacks and the square being a heavy traffic area something went wrong and Blackwater personnel from all four vehicles opened fire on numerous civilian vehicles. “When it was all over we were looking around and about fifteen cars had been destroyed, the bodies of the killed were strewn on the pavements and road.” Thiab one of the traffic officers recalled (Schahill, 2008).When the convoy cleared the area the “shootout” left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and 20 injured. These actions lead to an outrage not only in the Iraq but also the Arab community. While this wasn’t Blackwater’s first time making global headlines, this time was definitely the worst to date. It came to look so bad on the United States government that it was taken to trial in American court, and on January 1st of 2010 all charges were dismissed, both against those contractors involved in this terrible incident but also to company itself.
President’s Commission on Organised Crime 1984, Interim Report to the President and Attorney General, The Cash Connection: Organized Crime, Financial Institutions, and Money Laundering, viewed 28 March 2014, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/166517NCJRS.pdf
Money laundering is not a single act but is more a complex operation that is completed in three basic steps. The first step is placement, the second step is layering, and the third step is integration.
In this step, the funds are moved multiple times to distance them from the original source (“Money Laundering”). They could buy a series of negotiable and investment instruments or wire the funds through multiple accounts at multiple banks across the globe (“Money Laundering”).
Although research of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) government contractors over the last thirty years did not uncover any major allegations of shoddy workmanship or under spec deliverables, it did reveal serious issues with regard to billing fraud and huge bonuses paid out on over budget projects. Over the years there have been numerous allegations of fraud and abuse by NASA contractors. Finally in November 2000 the government was able to win a settlement against the Boeing Company of Seattle and the Houston-based United Space Alliance for a total of $825,000. In addition to the money that was awarded, these two companies agreed to forfeit any rights they have to collect on $1.2 million in unpaid invoices. This settlement was related to allegations that false claims had been submitted for work supposedly performed between 1986 and 1992 under the NASA Space Shuttle and Space Station Freedom programs. Originally, the Rockwell Space Operations Company (RSOC) was the contractor who was hired to manage the two programs. An RSOC sub-contractor, Omniplan Corporation, is accused of being involved in numerous fraudulent billing activities. The result of this fraud was that the United States was overcharged millions of dollars. The Boeing Company acquired RSOC in 1996 and at that time United Space Alliance took over the management of the two space programs. The government tried to sue Omniplan in 1993, but the company went bankrupt. In January 2000 the government then filed suit against RSOC claiming that they had submitted Omniplan’s false invoices. It is...
I am required to apply the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act of 1977 (FCPA), the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Controls) Regulations in every aspect of my job duties. As previously stated, the number one priority of my job is to protect the US soldier and these laws and regulations issued by different branches of the US Government—The Securities and Exchange Commission (FCPA), US State Department (ITAR), US Commerce Department (EAR), and the US Treasury (OFAC)—insures each export of military hardware or technology to a foreign entity for end use by a MoD protects the men and women of the US