Former US official to plead guilty in Iraqi kickback scheme
WASHINGTON -- A former US occupation official in Iraq has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to steal more than $2 million in reconstruction money and to award contracts to a businessman in exchange for more than $1 million in cash and goods.
Robert J. Stein Jr., 50, of Fayetteville, N.C., is scheduled to enter his guilty plea in US District Court in Washington today. Stein, a former contracting official for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, acknowledged his role in the conspiracy in a signed statement that has been filed with the court.
The businessman, Philip H. Bloom, also faces federal conspiracy and money laundering charges. Bloom is not named in Stein's statement, but has been identified elsewhere by prosecutors and is in federal custody in Washington. Five US Army Reserve officers also have been implicated in the theft and kickback scheme, according to court documents.
Rita Bosworth, a federal public defender in Washington who is representing Stein, had no comment yesterday.
Stein, who has an earlier federal fraud conviction, used the money to buy a single-engine Cessna airplane, a
Stein said he helped steer more than $8.6 million in contracts to companies controlled by Bloom, a US citizen who has lived in Romania for many years. The contracts were for less than $500,000 each, the limit of Stein's authority as the top contracting official in Hillah, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
Projects won by Bloom's companies included a new police academy for Hillah and renovation of the public library in nearby Karbala. Bloom's Romanian-based companies are Global Business Group, GBG Holdings, and GBG-Logistics Division, prosecutors have said.
Bloom gave Stein ''business-class and first-class plane tickets, watches and other jewelry, alcohol, cigars, sexual favors from women . . . at his villa in Baghdad, and money-laundering services," for the stolen reconstruction funds, the statement said.
