CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
U.S.
Army Officer Arrested in Expanding Iraq Bribe Case
19 Corporate Crime Reporter 47(3), December 1, 2005
A U.S. Army officer was arrested yesterday on charges of conspiring to commit
bribery in connection with a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority
in Iraq.
Michael Brian Wheeler, 47, of Amherst Junction, Wisconsin, was arrested on November
30, 2005 and is currently in custody in Wisconsin.
In 2003 and 2004, Wheeler, a civil affairs officer, was on active duty for the
United States Army, attached to and serving the CPA in Al-Hillah, Iraq, where
he was responsible for developing and ordering contracts and contract solicitations
on which the CPA expended funds in the reconstruction efforts of Iraq.
According to an affidavit
filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., CPA officials and a contractor conspired
to rig the bids on contracts being awarded by the CPA-SC so that numerous contracts
were awarded to the contractor's businesses.
Federal officials alleged that Wheeler and his co-conspirators accepted money
and gifts in return for using their official positions to award contracts to
the contractor and his companies.
The affidavit also alleges that CPA officials, including Wheeler, stole CPA
funds and laundered that money, and smuggled some of the currency into the United
States.
Wheeler allegedly stole $100,000 in CPA funds which he used to buy equipment
in Wisconsin.
If convicted, Wheeler faces up to 30 years in prison, a three-year term of supervised
release, and a fine of $250,000.
Wheeler is the third defendant to be charged in the government’s ongoing
investigation into bribery, money laundering and fraud by U.S. government officials
and contractors in Iraq.
On November 13, 2005, Philip Bloom, a U.S. citizen living in Romania and Iraq
and the owner and operator of numerous construction and service companies doing
business in Iraq, was arrested when he arrived at Newark International Airport.
On November 14, 2005, Robert J. Stein of Fayetteville, North Carolina, formerly
the Comptroller and Funding Officer for the CPA-SC, was also arrested in connection
with the investigation.
Both
Stein and Bloom remain in custody.
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