Culture of Corruption: Employee of Army Engineers Is Accused of Accepting Bribes

NYT

A member of the United States Army Corps of Engineers was arrested Friday at the Atlanta airport after a sting operation and is accused of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from a Kuwaiti rental agent who wanted to provide expensive apartments for American military employees in Kuwait, the Justice Department said yesterday.

The Corps of Engineers employee is a 62-year-old civilian named Gheevarghese Pappen.

The charges are the latest in a growing number of corruption cases involving contracting, supplies, construction and transport services in support of the war in Iraq.

Mr. Pappen, a naturalized American who was returning to his home in Savannah, Ga., when he was arrested, is accused of accepting about $45,000 in bribes.


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The United States government was being charged more than $2,000 a month for some of the apartments in luxury buildings that Mr. Pappen was renting, the court papers indicate.

But the scheme began to come undone in February, the court papers say, when a military officer, apparently suspecting that the apartments were overpriced, confronted Mr. Matar, who quickly admitted that he had been paying bribes to Mr. Pappen.

Mr. Matar then began cooperating with agents in the Army Criminal Investigative Division.

As part of the investigation, Mr. Matar wore a recording device last week in Kuwait and delivered a $22,000 bribe while agents listened, the court papers say.