Antitrust Lawyer Blog
On December 22, 2008, Theresa J. Baker, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, pled guilty for her role in two conspiracies to commit bribery involving U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) contracts at Camp Victory, Iraq.
As a part of the same investigation, on June 3, 2008, Raman International Inc. (“Raman”), a defense contractor, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. It agreed to pay the maximum criminal fine for a corporation charged with conspiracy to commit bribery of $500,000 and restitution fees amounting to $327,192 to the DOD.
As a part of the first conspiracy, Raman, headquartered in Cypress, TX, and Eric Chidiac, one of its former employees already indicted for two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, allegedly paid Ms. Baker money and gifted her a Harley Davidson to steer DOD contracts to Raman. Mr. Chidiac is currently a fugitive. Camp Victory is the main component of the Victory Base Plaza located near the Baghdad International Airport. Mr. Chidiac gave part of the payments made by DOD to Raman as kickbacks to the military officer.
The second conspiracy involved Ms. Baker cancelling contracts to third party contractors and awarding them to Mr. Chidiac. Mr. Chidiac received cash payments totaling approximately $700,000 from which Ms. Baker also took a portion.
Andre Barlow
(202) 589-1834
abarlow@dbmlawgroup.com