War Profiteers Busted In Bottled-Water Contract Fraud

The latest conviction of a string of indictments is former U.S. Army major Charles J. Bowie Jr; Bowie pleaded guilty to one count of money-laundering on May 11, 2011. The increasingly complex Cockerham bribery case moves forward.

Army Maj. John Cockerham was the ringleader of a $15-million kickback scheme, which is the largest fraudulent case to emerge from the war in Iraq. The Cockerham bribery case involved the investigation and trials of  U.S. Army contracting officers and family members, accepting bribes in return for steering multi-million dollar contracts to companies providing services in Iraq and Kuwait between 2004 and 2007.

Cockerham was sentenced to 17 and 1/2 years in prison for accepting bribes from Army contractors. The contracts were mainly for bottled water, which involved U.S. Army contracting officers, family members, and six companies from India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United States.

Cockerham had already received $9.6 million in payments, while he was waiting on $5.4 million more of laundry money. Investigators found millions of dollars hidden in safe-deposit boxes in the Middle East.

Background: By 2007, the U.S. Army had spent $6 billion on contracts in Iraq. That $6 billion would also be scrutinized and investigated by military officials, as well as another $88 billion in other contracts (NY Times).

Pentagon officials downplayed the massive corruption:

“I think it’s isolated incidents,” said Thomas F. Gimble, the principal deputy Pentagon inspector general. “The real issue is a lack of control, a lack of integrity and lots of opportunity and lots of money.”

“I don’t think it was a widespread conspiracy or cultural issue,” said Lt. Gen. N. Ross Thompson.

By Sept. 12 of 2007, the Army reported 78 cases of fraud and corruption, obtained 20 criminal indictments, and had uncovered over $15 million in bribes. Isolated incidents perhaps?

The convictions in the Cockerham bribery case alone are staggering, to say the least. U.S. Army major Charles J. Bowie Jr is the latest on the hit list. The list includes the wife of John, Melissa Cockerham, a sister, Carolyn Blake, a niece Nyree Pettaway, and the list just keeps on growing.

The bottled-water scandal case involves at least seven ranking soldiers, depending on who you talk to.