Retired Army Major Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Engaging in Money Laundering Related to Contracting in Support of Iraq War

WASHINGTON - A retired major in the U.S. Army was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for engaging in money laundering of criminally derived property totaling $400,000, which he received from a contractor following his deployment to Kuwait, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
 
Charles Joseph Bowie Jr., 45, of Georgetown, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division.  In addition to his prison term, Bowie was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution. 

Bowie pleaded guilty in May 2011 to a criminal information charging him with one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.  According to court documents, Bowie, a major in the U.S. Army at the time, served in Kuwait from April 2004 to April 2005, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  While in Kuwait, Bowie conspired with John Cockerham, also a U.S. Army major at the time, who directed a government contractor to pay Bowie money in exchange for the award of a bottled water contract.  As part of his guilty plea, Bowie admitted that he entered into a sham consulting agreement with the contractor in an effort to conceal the four $100,000 payments he received from the contractor between July 2005 and February 2006.

On Jan. 31, 2008, Cockerham pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery and money laundering scheme.  He was sentenced on Dec. 2, 2009, to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $9.6 million in restitution.
 
This case is being prosecuted by Criminal Division Trial Attorneys Richard B. Evans of the Public Integrity Section and  Mark W. Pletcher of the Fraud Section.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Biggs for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, is providing assistance in the case.

The case is being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the International Contract Corruption Task Force.