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Iraq Fraud Cases Make Rain for Lawyers
Pretty much anyway you slice it, these are great times for defense lawyers.
Iraq contractors are feeling the heat of Department of Justice scrutiny, and are turning to some heavy-hitters to help them out, The National Law Journal reports.
During the past year, several defense contractors hired to help rebuild Iraq have come under federal investigation or faced litigation for allegedly defrauding the government. Government officials estimate that $10 billion in Iraq-related contracts are unaccounted for and may have been lost to fraud or other misconduct.Currently, about 80 federal investigations looking into contract fraud are under way, and more than 20 cases have been referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution, according to congressional testimony offered by federal auditors. During the last three years, contract fraud investigations have yielded 10 arrests, five indictments, five convictions and two imprisonments.
An "army" of heavy-weight lawyers are giving their contractor clients sage advice like: "don't throw records away" and "don't conspire with people to cook their testimony." The advice might be working, because, so far, the hundreds of DOJ investigations have yielded fewer than a dozen indictments.
Comments (3)
Anonymous wrote on September 5, 2007 12:25 PM:The small print in the contracts probably state that "We the People" will be picking up the tab for their attorneys... at cost plus.
5 convictions and 2 imprisonments... and how much recovered money?
If we really had any intention of recovering the illegally gotten money and actually punishing anyone over the rank of janitor, we would most likely be better of hiring non government attorneys at a percentage of recovery fee.
As it stands now, "We the People" will probably spend much more attempting to recoup our money than we will actually receive. Afterall, these attorneys helping us now are probably the same ones setting up the contracts and auditing in the first place...
Anonymous wrote on September 5, 2007 1:50 PM:A number of these lawsuits are 'quit tam' suits which a whistleblower brings and traditionally, the Justice Department then joins. Around a dozen or so of these cases have been filed against Iraq reconstruction and as you'd expect, this Justice Department has refused to join the lawsuits almost insuring their failure.
The idea that these Iraq reconstruction companies are shaking in their boots from this Justice Department is laughable, unless they've let their political contributions trail off.
Roberta wrote on September 5, 2007 10:28 PM:Yes, Mr. or Ms Anonymous at 1:50 p.m., that the DoJ gets the final say in who gets prosecuted and who doesn't isn't exactly an assurance that guilty contractors are being punished.
These investigations and prosecutions should be bumped to a lower level (or an entire Special Prosecution team) to have some teeth in going after these carpetbaggers and profiteers. It'll be the only way that they get punished and that OUR government gets OUR money back.