U.S. contractor's wife held in Germany

BERLIN - The wife of an American military contractor accused of cheating U.S. taxpayers has been arrested on suspicion of laundering her husband's ill-gotten gains after investigators seized about $1 million from her accounts, a prosecutor said Monday.

Jacqueline Battles, a German citizen, was detained after a German bank informed authorities about "suspicious transactions" on her accounts two months ago, prosecutor David Kirkpatrick told The Associated Press.

German investigators seized about $1 million in suspect funds, Kirkpatrick, a prosecutor in Darmstadt, said in a telephone interview.

"She is in investigative custody," Kirkpatrick said. Battles, who lives near Darmstadt, has not been formally charged and Kirkpatrick wouldn't say where she was being held or when she was taken into custody.