.Ex-Colonel Smuggles $50K Out of Iraq
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A retired Army colonel was sentenced to five months in prison Monday for smuggling nearly $50,000 in cash that he said he made from Iraqi subcontractors working on rebuilding contracts.
Robert Grove, 63, hid stacks of $100 bills on his body and in his luggage, and lied to customs officials who questioned him as he arrived at Philadelphia International Airport in March, prosecutors said.
Grove, who says he won a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, was working as a military contractor in Iraq. He initially told customs officials that he had won the hidden cash in a high-stakes poker game, but later admitted that it came from Iraqi subcontractors.
Grove, a retired Army colonel from Clifton Heights, made the money moonlighting, helping subcontractors prepare marketing brochures, according to his attorney, Mark Cedrone. He had buried the cash in a Baghdad yard for months.
Cedrone called his client's actions "an aberrant and momentary loss of judgment."
Prosecutors suggested that such cash payments make it impossible for U.S. officials to maintain "the integrity of the contracting process and protect U.S. taxpayer funds."
In addition to the prison time, Chief U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III ordered Grove to spend five months in home confinement and pay a $30,000 fine. Grove also had agreed to forfeit the money and pay taxes on it.
Grove had faced a prison term of up to 16 months under federal sentencing guidelines for smuggling cash into the U.S. and other related counts.
He worked as a project manager for West Chester-based Weston Solutions Inc. and more recently as second-in-command in the Middle East for another contractor, Environmental Quality Management Inc.
"We are willing to stand by him even though he has committed a crime," the latter company's regional director, John T. Peckinpaugh, wrote in a letter to the court.
Weston issued a statement Monday saying the company made the Justice Department aware in July 2005 of allegations it had received.
"The reported allegations were that certain individuals working for Weston in Iraq violated our business ethics code and the law by receiving payments from subcontractors in return for favorable treatment," the statement said.
Weston said it had "zero tolerance for unethical behavior" and had cooperated fully with the probe.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, the company has more than 1,800 employees worldwide and was awarded more than $10 million in Iraq-rebuilding contracts through 2004.
AP
Robert Grove, 63, hid stacks of $100 bills on his body and in his luggage, and lied to customs officials who questioned him as he arrived at Philadelphia International Airport in March, prosecutors said.
Grove, who says he won a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, was working as a military contractor in Iraq. He initially told customs officials that he had won the hidden cash in a high-stakes poker game, but later admitted that it came from Iraqi subcontractors.
Grove, a retired Army colonel from Clifton Heights, made the money moonlighting, helping subcontractors prepare marketing brochures, according to his attorney, Mark Cedrone. He had buried the cash in a Baghdad yard for months.
Cedrone called his client's actions "an aberrant and momentary loss of judgment."
Prosecutors suggested that such cash payments make it impossible for U.S. officials to maintain "the integrity of the contracting process and protect U.S. taxpayer funds."
In addition to the prison time, Chief U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III ordered Grove to spend five months in home confinement and pay a $30,000 fine. Grove also had agreed to forfeit the money and pay taxes on it.
Grove had faced a prison term of up to 16 months under federal sentencing guidelines for smuggling cash into the U.S. and other related counts.
He worked as a project manager for West Chester-based Weston Solutions Inc. and more recently as second-in-command in the Middle East for another contractor, Environmental Quality Management Inc.
"We are willing to stand by him even though he has committed a crime," the latter company's regional director, John T. Peckinpaugh, wrote in a letter to the court.
Weston issued a statement Monday saying the company made the Justice Department aware in July 2005 of allegations it had received.
"The reported allegations were that certain individuals working for Weston in Iraq violated our business ethics code and the law by receiving payments from subcontractors in return for favorable treatment," the statement said.
Weston said it had "zero tolerance for unethical behavior" and had cooperated fully with the probe.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, the company has more than 1,800 employees worldwide and was awarded more than $10 million in Iraq-rebuilding contracts through 2004.
AP
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