Firm pays $4M to settle Iraq fraud

[spindrifter]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, August 2, 2006 · Last updated 7:45 a.m. PT

WASHINGTON -- A company hired by Halliburton Co. to ship military cargo to Iraq has paid the government $4 million to settle allegations it inflated invoices by adding a "war risk surcharge," the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The invoices from Houston-based EGL Inc., operating as Eagle Global Logistics, were for shipments of military goods sent from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Iraq between November 2003 and July 2004.

A former Dubai-based vice president, Christopher Joseph Cahill, pleaded guilty in February to inflating the invoices by $1.14 million to cover the fraudulent surcharges.

The company won a war contract from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root in 2002 to fly freight into Baghdad from Dubai. The deal was part of a logistics contract between KBR and the government that has paid out more than $11 billion, according to the Army Field Support Command.

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_Iraq_Fraud.html

[SeaBob]

1. A drop in the bucket from

a little bitty fish.