Bribery Scheme For Iraq Contracts

Forget Vegas, I want to go to party with this guy.

(AP/Yahoo)With millions of dollars in Iraqi reconstruction contracts to be had, Philip H. Bloom offered up money, cars, premium airline seats, jewelry, alcohol, even sexual favors from women at his villa in Baghdad.

Bloom spent $2 million in bribes to get $8.6 million in contracts. His connection was..

Robert J. Stein, a former contract official for the U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq, pleaded guilty in February to his role in the scheme. Two lieutenant colonels in the U.S. Army Reserve also have been arrested, while three other officers have been implicated but not charged.

But somehow us protesting the war will hurt the troops, cause this helps..

One official requested a blue Nissan 350Z sports car, which cost more than $30,000. "It appears that there are only two ... in the western United States," an employee wrote Bloom in June 2004.

In January 2004, Bloom ordered business-class plane tickets for an Army Reserve officer and his wife. "Very important to us ... I want to make sure its done right," Bloom wrote.

So how did this happen, and how did nobody notice this?

Bloom benefited from an elaborate bid-rigging scheme in which he would submit several bids for companies he controlled and others that did not exist. Some of the bids were high, while others were low.

All the bids came in under $500,000 each because that was the limit of Stein's authority to award a contract.

Bloom's companies won contracts for a police academy for Hillah and renovation of the public library near Karbala.

Police and libraries, those aren't important. I know, let's get a pimp to do that!