The U.S. flag flies over Ahead Working Base Lagman in Qalat, Afghanistan, in 2007. A former U.S. army contractor pleaded responsible this week to bribery and visa fraud in his administration of tens of millions of {dollars} price of U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan. (Protection Division)
A former U.S. army contractor pleaded responsible this week to bribery and visa fraud in his administration of tens of millions of {dollars} price of U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan.
Orlando Clark, 57, of Smyrna, Ga., was accused of conspiring with an analyst at one other American firm in 2011 and 2012 to obtain roughly $400,000 in bribes from an Afghan firm, the Justice Division stated in an announcement Wednesday.
In trade, Clark helped to safe profitable federal reconstruction contracts. He faces as much as 10 years in jail and is scheduled to be sentenced April 12.
To legitimize massive wire transfers, Clark arrange financial institution accounts for faux firms in Georgia and filed invoices for a phony automotive exporting enterprise, court docket paperwork present.
He used the bribe cash for private acquire, together with the acquisition of two BMWs, in accordance with prosecutors.
Contractors construct new sections of street in Spera, Afghanistan, in 2007. A watchdog company’s 2021 report revealed an absence of oversight and accountability within the awarding of contracts in Afghanistan. (Stephen Otero/Protection Division)
As well as, Clark admitted to accepting an unspecified quantity in bribes in trade for greater than 10 letters of advice for visas on behalf of Afghan nationals between 2015 and 2020.
He falsely claimed to have supervised the candidates’ work as translators and with out supporting data vouched that the Afghans didn’t pose a risk to nationwide safety.
Clark’s case is the newest in a sequence of investigations into contractor oversight in Afghanistan.
In 2021, a report by the Particular Inspector Normal for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, revealed an absence of oversight and accountability within the awarding of contracts through the 20-year-long U.S. struggle there within the wake of the 9/11 terrorist assaults.
Investigators discovered that contract work in Afghanistan steadily went unsupervised, resulting in situations of waste, fraud and abuse, together with building of services that needed to be repaired or fully rebuilt.
