CID races to catch up with greedy contractors

[unhappycamper]

CID races to catch up with greedy contractors
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Feb 21, 2009 10:12:44 EST

One contractor was forced to pay more than $9 million in fines after being convicted of improperly testing and manufacturing critical filters for M1 Abrams tanks.

Another contractor, who lied about air-shipping equipment to military installations when in fact it was trucking it and pocketing the savings, has paid the government $20 million in fines and penalties.

These and more than 500 other major fraud cases like them, involving millions of dollars at home and overseas, have kept a team of Army Criminal Investigation Command special agents so busy that their commanders are asking for more money for more agents to combat a seemingly rampant problem.

CID has conducted 215 fraud investigations involving Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait, said Dan Quinn, a retired colonel who serves as the chief of staff for CID. Of those cases, 117 are still open. In addition, the fraud unit is working on more than 400 cases in the U.S.

“Especially with the war, if people are greedy enough that they’re going to take hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions of dollars while we have soldiers out there fighting every day … it’s important that we pay attention to it and punish them for it,” said Scott Moreland, acting special agent in charge of the expeditionary fraud field office in Alexandria, Va.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/army_fraud_022109w/%2e