A federal court in Washington sentenced a former official of the Coalition authority - CPA in Iraq to nine years in prison and a fine of 3.6 million USD for charges related to money laundering in operations in which he was assisted by a US citizen established in Romania, according to the AFP.
Robert Stein, 52, pleaded guilty against charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering in February 2006 as he admitted he rerouted money from Iraq reconstruction funds while he served as treasurer for the CPA in the Al-Hillah region south of Baghdad.
With help from other CPA officials, he transferred over 2 million USD to an account belonging to Philip Bloom, an American businessman established in Romania, who laundered money through a network of Iraqi, Romanian and Swiss accounts.
Stein admitted that he and his accomplices took bribes amounting to more than 1 million USD in the form of luxury cars, jewels, computers, plane tickets and other valuable goods in exchange for fictional contracts.
For his part, Philip Bloom pleaded guilty to charges related to Iraq contracts amounting to over 8.6 million USD in March last year. A verdict in his case is expected next month.
HotNews.ro, Jan 30, 2007
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