Firm tied to Iraq scandal profited

[sabra]

Source: SA Express-News

A Kuwaiti company made millions of dollars from U.S. military contracts despite evidence suggesting that it tried to bribe Fort Sam Houston-based Army Maj. John L. Cockerham with $40,000 for some of the work.

Kamal Mustafa Al-Sultan Co. was also flagged in 2003 for missing fuel that, according to an Army document, was found to have been “stolen” from supplies the business was supposed to deliver to U.S. troops. But military officials imposed a slap on the hand that enabled the company to continue to get more than $24 million in additional work paid for by U.S. taxpayers, a San Antonio Express-News investigation has found.

The newspaper confirmed that Kamal Mustafa Al-Sultan Co., now known as KMS Co. and run by a member of Kuwait's powerful Sultan family, appears on a bribery ledger that military investigators seized from Cockerham in 2007 during what was termed the largest graft investigation to emerge from the war in Iraq.

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According to previously undisclosed records, questions had already been raised about KMS' practices before Cockerham got to Kuwait. In May 2004, the Army sent a letter to KMS seeking the collection of 150,622 Kuwaiti Dinars — roughly $562,000 — for missing fuel. The quantity of fuel was not specified.

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In response to the Express-News' inquiries, the Army's Contracting Command said there was no reason to blackball KMS “because it reimbursed the Army,” a spokeswoman said via e-mail.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/Firm_tied_to_Iraq_scandal_profited.html