Former Bush Interior Dept. Official gets 10 months jail sentence in Abramoff case
Stephen Griles was sentenced to ten months in prison this afternoon:
The Interior Department's former No. 2 official was sentenced to 10 months in prison Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the highest administration official sentenced in the probe.
J. Steven Griles, who was the department's deputy secretary, had pleaded guilty to obstructing justice.
Griles admitted to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, the central figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration.
Griles had asked to be spared prison time. Under his plea deal with prosecutors, the Justice Department recommended he serve five months in prison and five months in a halfway house or under house arrest. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle decided he should spend the full sentence in prison. (that's our emphasis added)
Jun 25, 7:34 PM
Jun 25, 7:34 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (AP) - A former U.S. Army Reserve officer was sentenced to nearly two years in prison Monday for helping steer millions of dollars in Iraq-reconstruction contracts in exchange for jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors.
Lt. Col. Bruce D. Hopfengardner, 46, of Fredericksburg, Va., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud last year. He served as a special adviser to the U.S.-led occupation forces, recommending funding for projects on law enforcement facilities in Iraq.
Hopfengardner was sentenced to 21 months in prison, fined $144,500 and ordered to serve three years of probation.
He admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen with businesses in Romania, and Robert J. Stein Jr., a former Defense Department contract official, to create a corrupt bidding process that included the theft of $2 million in reconstruction money.
Hopfengardner's role was to recommend that the Coalition Provisional Authority fund projects to demolish the Ba'ath Party headquarters, rebuild a police academy and construct various other facilities.
Bloom, who controlled companies in Iraq and Romania, bid on projects using dummy corporations and Stein ensured that one of the firms was awarded the contract, according to court documents.
Bloom received more than $8.6 million in rigged contracts, prosecutors said. In exchange, the businessman showered Hopfengardner and Stein with cash, cars, premium airline seats, jewelry, alcohol and even sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.
Bloom was sentenced in February to nearly four years in prison and was ordered to forfeit $3.6 million. Stein was sentenced in January to nine years and was also ordered to forfeit $3.6 million.
The Crooked Buffalo
I hope DOJ or Resources Committee or whomever is in charge takes a good hard look at the DOI and the various agencies from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to the BLM to the BIA. Look for same activity as at DOJ with career people...even rewritten performance ratings, preselection of friends and pals for civil service jobs, harassment of employees with ethics and integrity or who the bushies and industry want out of the way...and please do not have the fox review the hen house all you will get are glowing reports.
same old sos just your public lands and fish and wildlife rather than your laws and justice
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more on the way?
It would not be surprising, as DOJ and Congressional investigations sift through this administration's activities, that news items like this become increasingly frequent.