Ex-Contractor For Pentagon Gets Nine Years
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — A former Pentagon contractor has been sentenced to nine years in prison for helping steer millions of dollars in Iraqi reconstruction aid to a businessman in exchange for travel, watches, alcohol, cigars, and sexual favors.
Robert Stein, 52, of Fayetteville, N.C., was ordered Monday to forfeit $3.6 million and serve three years’ probation, the Justice Department said. Stein was a comptroller and funding officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He pleaded guilty in February 2006 to bribery, money laundering conspiracy, and other charges.
He confessed to conspiring with an American citizen with businesses in Romania, Philip Bloom, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, Bruce Hopfengardner, and others including several high-ranking Army officers.
Bloom bid on projects using dummy corporations, and Stein ensured that one of the firms was awarded the contract, according to court documents.
