US Army Fuel Smuggling Ring Funded Taliban

[kscarbel2]

Associated Press  /  September 18, 2016

Late one night in February 2011, a group of U.S. soldiers and civilians on a dusty airfield in Jalalabad, Afghanistan conspired to steal and sell jet fuel to a mysterious Afghan contractor. Little did they know that night that the scheme would evolve into a months-long racket that likely ended up funding the Taliban’s ongoing insurgency.

Army Sergeant Kevin Bilal Abdullah, Spc. Stephanie Charboneau and civilian contractors Jonathan Hightower and Christopher Weaver helped an Afghan contractor smuggle over $1,225,000-worth of JP-8 jet fuel off Forward Operating Base Fenty from February to May 2010.

JP-8 is a standard jet fuel utilized by U.S. Air Force aircraft, meaning the fuel ring’s actions likely jeopardized the Air Force’s ability to fly missions in support of U.S. troops, putting their lives in danger.

“Fuel theft not only robs U.S. taxpayers and damages the reconstruction effort, but military operations can be jeopardized when needed fuel is stolen or otherwise diverted,” said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in a report released Wednesday. “Impending operations may force a commander to accept what fuel he can and forgo accountability processes to ensure mission success.”

To make matters worse, the illicit sale of fuel on the Afghan black market is considered to be a primary funding stream for the Taliban and other Afghan insurgent groups, according to SIGAR.

The conspiracy was a fairly simple operation, but clandestine in nature. Abdullah oversaw the distribution of fuel in the Nangarhar province, which gave him and his fellow conspirators access to the fuel and the papers required to transport it. Working in conjunction with the Afghan contractor, the the group would fill 3,000 gallon trucks, known locally as “jingle trucks” due to their flare and adornments. Abdullah would then forge the transportation movement requests (TMRs) required to move fuel from the base to various locations in the region and provide them to the Afghan contractor, allowing the drivers of the trucks to leave the base with the fuel with no problem.

While Charboneau, Abdullah, Hightower and Weaver would eventually be caught and charged for their crimes, another group of soldiers on FOB Fenty continued the operation just months later.

Army Sgt. Regionald Dixon, Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Ware and later Spc. Larry Emmons engaged in a similar fuel smuggling operation involving forged TMR documents and an Afghan contractor from December 2011 to February 2012. A mysterious Afghan contractor paid the group $6,000 for each 3,000 gallon truck full of fuel. While investigators have reported the two schemes were separate, it is unclear whether or not both groups were bribed by the same contractor. The second group was eventually caught and prosecuted.

A third fuel smuggling case was recently discovered in 2016. Former Army Spc. Sheldon Morgan pleaded guilty to aiding an Afghan contractor in stealing and smuggling fuel out of FOB Fenty. It is unclear whether Morgan was involved or aware of the other two groups, though the dates of the crimes do coincide.

At the time of Ware’s indictment, SIGAR chief John Sopko noted his office had recovered $1.6 million in illegal proceeds and $20 million in civil penalties related to fuel smuggling cases.

Fuel is considered “liquid gold” in Afghanistan’s notorious black market. The Defense Logistics Agency has supplied more than 2.5 billion gallons of fuel, worth more than $12 billion, to U.S. personnel and the Afghan military as of September 2014.

“Almost all the large fuel theft schemes investigated by SIGAR included U.S. military personnel and, in some cases, contract civilian personnel,” noted SIGAR’s report.

Corruption in Conflict: Lessons from the U.S. experience in Afghanistan......... https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/LessonsLearned/SIGAR-16-58-LL.pdf

Army Soldier Sentenced for Facilitating Thefts of Fuel in Afghanistan......... https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/army-soldier-sentenced-facilitating-thefts-fuel-afghanistan

Army Sergeant Indicted For Accepting Bribes From Afghan Trucking Company In Exchange For Stealing Jet Fuel In Afghanistan........... https://www.justice.gov/usao-hi/pr/army-sergeant-indicted-accepting-bribes-afghan-trucking-company-exchange-stealing-jet

Army Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy in Afghanistan Bribery Scheme.......... https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/army-sergeant-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-afghanistan-bribery-scheme-0

[grayhair]

These scumbags should be executed.  Too bad we in the U.S. are so PC.  Otherwise, maybe, say, after execution, their heads could be filled solid and then bronzed.  Said bronzed heads could then be be mounted at ground level at a special public site where it is permissible for anyone to wipe their shoes upon them or urinate upon them.  IMO.    

[Red Horse]

What bullshit!  The lesson here?  Crime pays!  The scumbag makes a pile of money, gets caught, gets 12 months in the can and must pay back a half a million!   How many dirt bags will look at this and say-...."Hell, its worth a shot-if we don't get caught, we make a pile-if we get caught we do a a year in jail.  Go for it!"

Add to this we are not talking about a common street dirtbag-we are talking about someone who raised his right hand to serve his country.

I agree with Grayhair-well maybe life in the can would be a good compromise-certainly NOT a slap on the wrist.

[TeamsterGrrrl]

The Postal Service let themselves get scammed in a similar manner. They supplied their trucking contractors fuel,  via the "Voyager" federal credit cards. A lot of these Postal contractors have other diesel trucks on non postal work as well as diesel pickups, off road equipment, etc.. Suffice to say, some of those trucks contracted to the Postal Service got extremely poor mileage!

[kscarbel2]

Fort Wainwright soldier gets 4 months in prison for fuel thefts

Associated Press  /  October 27, 2016

A U.S. Army specialist was sentenced Friday in Fairbanks federal court for allowing the theft of two truckloads of fuel while stationed in Afghanistan in exchange for $5,000 kickbacks.

Sheldon J. Morgan was sentenced to four months in prison and two years of probation, according to court records. He also has to pay restitution totaling $37,300, the estimated value of the fuel.

When prosecutors filed an indictment in May listing a single charge of conspiring to receive bribes and defraud the U.S., Morgan was assigned to Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, an official said.

Morgan was serving with the Army's 426th Brigade Support Battalion at a forward operating base in Jalalabad for about a year starting in May 2010.

The base in Jalalabad was used as a hub for the distribution of fuel to other nearby bases, and Morgan oversaw its operation, according to the charges.

An Afghan trucking company distributed the fuel in what the court documents call "Jingle" trucks, colorfully decorated transport trucks. Around December 2010, a translator for the driver of the Jingle trucks asked Morgan if the driver could steal some of the fuel being loaded at the base, and Morgan agreed, according to the charges. Morgan was paid $5,000 each for two stolen tankers of fuel.

Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing document that the government does not know where the stolen fuel ended up, but they noted the defendant and his wife used the bribe money for "personal purposes."

The U.S. Attorney's Office recommended a two-year sentence for Morgan. Prosecutors noted Morgan's honesty when confronted by law enforcement but argued his actions in Afghanistan corrupted and caused direct financial harm to the military contracting process.

U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline opted for the four months of imprisonment.

At least seven other individuals, members of units from the same forward operating base and a contractor, have pleaded guilty to similar fuel theft schemes, court records show.

Those instances of theft involved more money than Morgan's case, Assistant Federal Defender Gary Colbath wrote in a sentencing document.

"The closest case monetarily, was that of Morgan's supervisor, Bilal Abdullah. Abdullah was ordered to serve one year and one day in custody and pay restitution of $466,250," Colbath wrote.

The defense attorney also noted Morgan's military service — he enlisted at 19 and was deployed four times. During one such deployment, he lost his index finger on his left hand, Colbath said.

Morgan is being discharged from the Army and will lose all of his benefits due to the criminal case.