Ex-US Army logistics officer in Kuwait arrested for ‘corruption’ in Philippines
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Arrest warrant issued against Indian businessman
KUWAIT CITY, Dec 15: The US Department of Justice has announced that a former US Army logistics officer has been arrested in the Philippines, and that he will be extradited to the United States for trial for corruption related to contracts he was responsible for coordinating in Kuwait for the Camp Arifjan a few years ago, reports Al-Rai daily.
According to Stripes.com, the lawsuit and criminal investigation authorities of the Pentagon and the US military against the American officer (of Filipino origin) have been charged with corruption, including engaging in bribes and receiving illegal financial gratuities from an Indian businessman who runs a company in Kuwait in exchange for facilitating the award of this company to subcontracts.
The Ministry of Justice statement stated that, through coordination with the Philippine authorities, the officer was arrested two days ago in the capital, Manila, where he had been living since 2016.
According to the criminal case documents, the charges against him date back to the period between 2010 and 2014 when he was working in Kuwait as responsible for coordinating award procedures and following up the implementation of contracts for Camp Arifjan.
The lawsuit accuses the 62-yearold former officer of brokering a bribe to a senior official of a major company formally contracted with the US military, in order for the latter to facilitate the granting of subcontracts to a contracting company operating in Kuwait run by an Indian businessman.
The former officer is also accused of having expressed his willingness to inflate the value of Camp Arifjan’s contracts, with the value difference being shared by both the main company official and the Indian businessman. The case papers include documents proving that the accused and his family members in the Philippines received huge financial transfers as bribes and illegal gratuities from the Indian businessman and another contractor in exchange for facilitating their subcontracting from the main company.
An American judicial source stated that the Indian businessman is accused in the same case and there was a warrant for his arrest to appear before an American court, but it turned out that he is not currently present in Kuwait and is still on the run avoiding justice. Under the exchange agreement between the accused between Manila and Washington, the suspect will be extradited to the United States in order to face the criminal charges against him.
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