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Safe Deposit Boxes, Offshore Banks Key to Laundering in Army Bribery Case
By Brian Monroe
printU.S. Army Major John Cockerham made a lot of money selling his influence as a contracting officer – usually for several hundred thousand dollars at a time – to guarantee certain military contractors would win government bids, according to federal investigators. But the 41-year-old Louisiana native was tripped up by his efforts to launder $9.6 million in bribes from eight yet-unnamed contractors while he was stationed in Kuwait in 2004 and 2005, according to court documents filed July 23 in federal court for the Western District of Texas. Investigators – who have recovered about $400,000 – say he was slated...
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Follow the headlines and you'll find an all too common story: the political winds shift, a leader is deposed and a fortune in dirty money is uncovered in a warren of offshore accounts. But why did no one stop the plundering sooner?
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