The former president of a defense contractor providing services to the U.S. military in Iraq has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for his role in a scheme to pay more than $1.2 million in bribes to U.S. Army contracting personnel in exchange for being awarded lucrative defense contracts.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania sentenced Justin W. Lee, 37, of Philadelphia, the former president of Lee Dynamics International (LDI), who pleaded guilty in July 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and four substantive counts of bribery.
In connection with his guilty plea, Lee admitted that as the president of LDI and previously as an officer of American Logistics Services (ALS), a Kuwaiti company providing supplies to the U.S. military in Iraq, he paid multiple bribes in the form of cash, airline tickets, trips and hotel stays, among other things, to military contracting personnel in exchange for their agreement to take official action to award lucrative contracts to both LDI and ALS.
Lee’s father and co-defendant, George Lee, who was the CEO of both companies, was earlier sentenced to 54 months in prison for one count of bribery.
This marks the end of a long-running investigation, which began in 2006, that led to the conviction of seven other defendants, including several high-ranking contracting officers.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the case. The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the FBI, and the Internal Revenue Service contributed to the investigation. The Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California previously provided substantial assistance.
