by David Phinney
Thursday March 28th 2024

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Halliburton Manager Pleads Guilty to Iraq Kickback

This just in…. and just spewed out.
A former Halliburton project manager entered a guilty plea today to charges of accepting more than $100,000 dollars in kickbacks on a $609,000 construction contract to renovate four buildings Iraq.
This is all sort of a surprise. There never was prior news of an indictment or arrest of the manager, Glenn Allen Powell, who worked for Halliburton’s subsidiary, KBR.
The public paper trail of the case begins with a press release today from U.S. Attorney Jan Paul Miller of the Central District of Illinois.
Miller’s office has the lead on most of the criminal investigations against KBR because of its proximity to Rock Island Army Arsenal, home to the Army Operations and Support Command. That’s where KBR’s multibillion contract for logistics services was drafted, signed and is now supervised.
Miller’s office is also prosecuting former KBR manager Jeff Alex Mazon and Ali Hijazi, the managing partner of a Kuwaiti business, La Nouvelle General Trading and Contracting Company. The two were indicted March 16 on charges of devising a scheme to defraud the United States of more than $3.5 million related to the awarding of a La Nouvelle subcontract to supply fuel tankers for military operations in Kuwait.
Mazon has been arraigned. Hijazi is at large, but his attorneys have requested the charges be dropped. The court has ruled Hijazi’s charges can’t be dropped unless he shows his mug in court. I think we have an impasse.
Powell, of Cedar Park, Texas, is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 18 for violating the Federal anti-kickback act and fraud.
The 40-year-old from faces 10 years in prison on each count and a fine of up to $1.2 million dollars.
No mention was made of who the subcontractor is that made the payoff to Powell in Iraq and it is not named in the plea bargain.

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