Express-News
The FedEx packages shipped to San Antonio contained typical souvenirs from Iraq: jewelry, kites and T-shirts. They also held at least $150,000 in cash, all undeclared, according to court documents unsealed this week.
The sender, David Ricardo Ramirez, illegally took the money from the billions of dollars that American taxpayers have poured into Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the records show.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury in San Antonio indicted Ramirez on charges of smuggling bulk amounts of cash and structuring bank transactions to evade cash-reporting requirements.
He has sat for weeks in a downtown San Antonio jail as agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, the Air Force and the Army follow the trail of the cash he allegedly mailed to his sister. Agents suspect Ramirez spent it on a condo on Lake Travis in Austin, property in Val Verde County, a 1989 Lamborghini and a 2007 Ducati motorcycle.
"This is a contracting fraud investigation that is still ongoing," said Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI.
Though most details remain closely guarded, a review of his case by the San Antonio Express-News reveals a pattern similar to incidents of corruption that have embarrassed the Pentagon. Fraud and war profiteering in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan have cost taxpayers millions, investigators have found.
Ramirez worked from Nov. 1, 2006, to Nov. 30, 2007, for a U.S.-based contractor, Readiness Management Support, or RMS, at Balad Air Base, Iraq. He was initially detained in December by the FBI in San Antonio on charges of making false statements to get the job, court records show. RMS has a contract with the Air Force to help maintain the military branch's operations overseas.
Ramirez's job title was "installation community planner," and his duties included planning sites for new construction within military bases in Iraq...........
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