Military Contractor Convicted of Bribery Scheme

Kellogg Brown and Root Inc. had a contract to provide support services to the U.S. Army at Bagram Airfield, Afhanistan, including unloading truckloads of jet fuel delivered by drivers.

Raschad L. “Sean” Lewis, a former fuel section employee of Kellogg Brown and Root Inc., assigned to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, was found guilty Thursday in Alexandria Federal Court by a federal jury of conspiracy, false writing, bribery of a public official, and false claims stemming from a bribery and a fuel diversion scheme.

According to court documents, KBR had a contract to provide support services to the U.S. Army at Bagram Airfield, including unloading truckloads of jet fuel delivered by drivers hired by Red Star Enterprises Limited.
 
Evidence at trial proved that between May and September 2006, Lewis and other KBR employees conspired to accept payments from drivers, who in fact were selling their fuel to parties outside the airfield, in return for providing the drivers with documents to deliver to Red Star falsely showing that the truckloads of fuel had been delivered to the airfield. According to evidence presented in court, more than 48 truckloads of fuel were diverted for sale outside the airfield between May and September 2006, valued at more than $800,000.

Lewis is facing a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 21. Previously, former KBR employee Wallace A. Ward pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Jan. 25, 2008, and was sentenced last year to 26 months in prison. Another former KBR employee, James N. Sellman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Feb. 7, 2008, and was sentenced last year, to 26 months in prison.