Remember hearing all those stories about billions of American taxpayer dollars "missing" in Iraq? Well, as far as I know, that money is still missing.
But--Surprise! Now there's new information about the gross mismanagement of millions more!
It seems that, in 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American-led administration that was then running Iraq, somehow overlooked the prior fraud felon conviction of Robert J. Stein and hired him to administer $82 million of reconstruction money in the south central Iraqi city of Hilla.
You heard right: $82 million of your tax dollars in the hands of a felon.
Mr. Stein plead guilty today, In United States District Court in Washington, "to conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, possession of a machine gun and being a felon in possession of firearms, for essentially giving millions of that money to [businessman Philip H.] Bloom, and taking millions more for himself. Mr. Stein used some of his stolen money, the papers say, to buy items as wildly diverse as grenade launchers, machine guns, a Lexus, "an interest in one Porsche," a Cessna airplane, two plots of real estate in Hope Mills, N.C., a Toshiba personal computer, 18 Breitling watches, a 6-carat diamond ring and a collection of silver dollars. The papers say that the ring of corruption was much wider than previously known, drawing at least seven Americans, including Mr. Stein, Mr. Bloom and five Army reserve officers, into what is portrayed as a maelstrom of greed, sex and gun-running at the heart of the American occupation of a conservative Muslim country." Read more ... if you can stomach it.
Photo credit: (Cumberland County Sheriff's Department) Mr. Stein after his arrest in November on corruption charges.
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Former U.S. Official in Iraq to Plead Guilty to CorruptionTechnorati tags: Iraq, Iraq reconstruction, Robert J. Stein Jr., Coalition Provisional Authority, corruption, New York Times, news and commentary
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