NBC: Massive bid-rigging scam alleged in Iraq U.S. says businessman bribed coalition officials to land rebuilding contracts
By Aram Roston
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 8:57 p.m. ET Nov. 16, 2005
WASHINGTON - A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Washington on Wednesday alleges a web of corruption and bid rigging in Iraq by officials who worked with the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led agency that ran Iraq for more than a year after the 2003 invasion.
The complaint accuses an American-Romanian businessman, Philip H. Bloom, of paying officials from the coalition’s south-central region "bribes, kickbacks and gratuities, amounting to at least $200,000 per month," in order to obtain reconstruction contracts through a bid-rigging scam.
According to the complaint, Bloom "conspired with United States government contract employees and military officials to obtain fraudulently government contracts."... http://tinyurl.com/bvfs4
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