A U.S. Army soldier was sentenced to serve 12 months and one day in
prison for his role in stealing fuel at Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Fenty near Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Acting Assistant Attorney
General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and
U.S. Attorney David J. Hale of the Western District of Kentucky made the
announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas B.
Russell in the Western District of Kentucky.
According to court
documents, in May and June 2010, U.S. Army Sergeant Kevin Bilal
Abdullah, 40, of Clarksville, Tenn., was involved in overseeing the
delivery of fuel from FOB Fenty to other military bases.
Abdullah created fraudulent documents called Transportation
Movement Requests purporting to authorize the transport of fuel from FOB
Fenty to other military bases, even though no legitimate fuel
transportation was required.
After the trucks were filled with fuel, these fraudulent
documents were used by the drivers of the fuel trucks at FOB Fenty’s
departure checkpoint to justify the trucks’ departures.
In truth, the fuel was simply stolen, and
Abdullah and his co-conspirators received payment in cash from a
representative of the Afghan trucking company that allegedly stole the
fuel.
Abdullah pleaded guilty on Aug. 29, 2013, to
receiving payments from a representative of the trucking company in
exchange for facilitating the theft of fuel in approximately 25 fuel
trucks.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and to the substantive count of bribery.
At sentencing, he was ordered to pay $466,250 in restitution.
Abdullah’s sentencing was the fourth conviction arising from this investigation of fuel thefts at FOB Fenty.
On Aug. 3, 2012, Jonathan Hightower, a civilian employee of a
military contractor who had conspired with Abdullah and others, pleaded
guilty to similar charges.
After cooperating with the government, he was sentenced on Oct. 28, 2013, to serve 27 months in prison.
On Oct.10, 2012, Christopher Weaver, another conspirator,
pleaded guilty to fuel theft charges and, after cooperating with the
government, was sentenced on Oct. 28, 2013, to serve 37 months in
prison.
On Sept. 5, 2013, former Specialist Stephanie Charboneau
pleaded guilty, and on Feb. 4, 2014, she was sentenced to serve 87
months in prison.
Weaver, Hightower and Charboneau were prosecuted in the District of Colorado.
These
cases were investigated by the Special Inspector General for
Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the Department of the Army -
Criminal Investigation Division, the Defense Criminal Investigative
Service and the FBI.
The Abdullah case was handled by Special
Trial Attorney Mark H. Dubester of the Criminal Division’s Fraud
Section, on detail from SIGAR, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael
Bennett.
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