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Press Release

Former DoD Contracting Official Sentenced To Prison for Bribery

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – James Edward Addas, 55, of Stafford, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in a bribery scheme involving U.S. government contracts in Iraq.

Addas pleaded guilty on Feb. 20, 2015. According to court documents, in August 2004, Addas was a contracting official at the Iraq/Afghanistan Joint Contracting Command in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad when the owner and CEO of a contracting company based in Jordan offered to pay him a total of $1 million in return for assistance in obtaining U.S. government contracts for major electrical construction projects and related services in Iraq.  The contractor made an initial cash payment of $50,000 in a paper sack, which was handed to Addas inside the “Green Zone” of the U.S. Embassy compound. With Addas’s assistance, the contractor’s companies subsequently received at least 15 contracts, with a total value of more than $28 million awarded to the companies.  In addition to the initial payment, the contractor later sent funds to Addas via wire transfers that totaled more than $455,000 and paid for other items valued at more than $70,000.  Addas did not declare any of this income on his filed federal tax returns.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Frank Robey, Director of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s (CID) Major Procurement Fraud Unit; Robert E. Craig Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Mid-Atlantic Field Office; Darrell Gilliard, Special Agent in Charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Washington D.C. Field Office; and John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye and Trial Attorney Wade Weems of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:15-cr-33.

Updated January 8, 2016

Topic
Public Corruption