Major Accused of stealing $9.6 Million in Iraq's Largest Bribery Scandal Remains a Hometown Hero

[Ian David]

Web Posted: 08/12/2007 12:48 AM CDT

Guillermo Contreras
San Antonio Express-News


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A contracting officer for the Army now stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Cockerham, 41, is at the center of what officials say is the largest bribery scandal to come out of Iraq. He's accused of taking $9.6 million in kickbacks — and expecting $5.4 million more — in exchange for diverting lucrative military contracts to certain companies in Kuwait and Iraq, mostly while he was deployed to Kuwait during 2004 and 2005.

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"He's worked hard to get where he is," said Darryl Clark, pastor of Upper Zion Baptist Church in Shreveport, who graduated with Cockerham. "Given the conditions he grew up in, he could have quit, but he didn't. He made a conscious effort to succeed."

<snip>

Cockerham was baptized at age 7 at his family's church, New Friendship Baptist, about a mile from his childhood home, said Verba Egans, the church's secretary, closest neighbor to the home and a friend of the family. The day before his arrest, John Cockerham was in Castor, baptizing his twin boys, Justin and Jordan, at New Friendship, Egans said.

In Texas, the Cockerhams attended Resurrection Baptist Church in Schertz, where 80 to 85 percent of the 3,500-strong congregation has some ties to the military. There, John Cockerham and his family were active in religious activities. Family deacon Ray Wynn and other Resurrection members described them as nice people.

More:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081207.01A.cockerham_profile.3430e49.html

[rodeodance]

1. -charged with conspiring with the Cockerhams to defraud the United States and to launder money.---

Cockerham and his wife, Melissa, are jailed in San Antonio on federal charges related to bribery and money laundering.

(Photos by John Davenport/Express-News)

Charles Cockerham, brother of U.S. Army Maj. John Cockerham, walks in the piney woods of northern Louisiana where they were raised. 'My brother is no criminal,' he said.

Charles Cockerham holds a composite picture of the extended Cockerham family.

They are pending indictment along with one of his sisters, Carolyn Blake of Sunnyvale, near Dallas, who's charged with conspiring with the Cockerhams to defraud the United States and to launder money. She is out on bond, and her case was transferred to San Antonio last week.

To many Castor residents, the charges against John Cockerham are sharply contrary to the person they know — kind, generous, religiously devout and devoted to family.

They still talk about the quiet, humble boy who grew into an impressive man and did much to help the black community and others here, where options for advancement are few.

[rodeodance]

2. this whole story is sad----'good boy gone bad" if true.