$69.3 million Afghan-contracting fine may be a record

[babylonsister]

$69.3 million Afghan-contracting fine may be a record

By Warren P. Strobel and Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — A nearly $70 million fine announced Friday against one of the U.S. government's largest Afghanistan contractors is an apparent record war-zone settlement, and it grew from a classic David vs. Goliath confrontation.

New Jersey-based Louis Berger Group, which has overseen the construction of roads, power plants and schools across Afghanistan, acknowledged that It had knowingly and systematically overcharged the U.S. government and agreed to pay $69.3 million in criminal and civil penalties.

Louis Berger's antagonist was Harold Salomon, a Haitian immigrant and former employee who resisted pressure to keep quiet. He said Friday that he planned to donate part of his whistleblower's award to a nonprofit he founded that provides health care and other services in Haiti.

In 2006, Salomon went to law enforcement authorities with evidence — including CDs full of data — that the contractor had defrauded the government of millions in a complex accounting scheme that billed taxpayers for overhead and other costs that had nothing to do with its government contracts.

"Today I can affirm to those who told me the Louis Berger Group can get away with anything that they were wrong," Salomon said in a statement through his attorneys. "To those who said, 'If you cannot beat them, you have to join them,' I say they were wrong, too."

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/05/103300/693-million-afghan-contracting.html

[RandomThoughts]

1. Yep, you don't join something if you disagree with it.

That is the way to lose. Many try to figure what side will 'win' and join for some selfish reason.

But in reality, there is not a single person alive that can actually say for sure what winning is, so best to do what you think is best, since you won't know who won or lost till later anyways.

:)

Side note, except maybe those in their second life.