US soldier pleads guilty to bribery charges in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (PAN): A US soldier on Thursday pleaded guilty to bribery charges for his role in the theft of fuel in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, the Department of Justice said.

Army Sergeant Kevin Bilal Abdullah, 30, of Fort Campbell, in Kentucky pleaded guilty before District Judge Thomas Russell to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one substantive count of bribery.

Abdullah confessed to receiving payments from a representative of a trucking company in exchange for facilitating the theft of approximately 25 truckloads of fuel. According to court documents, the loss to the US was in excess of $400,000.

In May and June 2010, Abdullah was involved in overseeing the delivery of fuel from Forward Operating Base Fenty to other areas. As part of this process, documents generally described as “transportation movement requests” were created to authorise the movement of fuel.

The accused created fraudulent papers that purported to authorise the transport of fuel from the base to other spots, even though no legitimate fuel transportation was required.

After the trucks were filled with fuel, the fake documents were used by drivers at the base departure checkpoint. In truth, the fuel was simply stolen, the Justice Department said.

mud

Visits: 2