Former contractor pleads guilty to Iraq fuel theft

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former Army contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing nearly $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from a U.S. Army base in Iraq and selling it on the black market.

Lee W. Dubois, 32, of Lexington, S.C., faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on a single count of theft of government property. He also will be required to pay restitution.

Federal sentencing guidelines could recommend a term as long as nine years, Dubois' lawyer said.

Dubois had been a captain in the Army dealing with contract issues until he took a job in September 2007 with Kuwait-based Future Services General Trading and Contracting Co.
In a plea hearing in U.S. District Court, Dubois admitted he and others used false paperwork to draw more than 10 million gallons of fuel from Camp Liberty in Baghdad between October 2007 and May.

The fraudulent paperwork allowed Dubois and others to drive fuel trucks up to the base and withdraw tens of thousands of gallons of fuel per day, according to court records.
Dubois personally earned at least $450,000 from the scheme.

In all, the government estimates that Dubois and several conspirators — none of whom have yet been charged — stole roughly 3.5 million gallons of jet fuel and 7 million gallons of diesel fuel. Dubois' plea deal requires him to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

His lawyer, James Clark, said after the hearing that his client "served his country well but in this case he showed extraordinarily poor judgment, and he'll pay for that the rest of his life."

The case is one of many in federal courts dealing with contractor fraud and theft in Iraq.

From 2003 to 2007, an estimated $85 billion — or about 20 percent of the entire budget for the Iraq war during that time — was awarded to contractors supporting the war.
Congress, concerned that fraud has been rampant, earlier this year enacted a special commission to examine wartime contracting.

The Army's Criminal Investigations Command, which investigated Dubois, said in February that it had 90 criminal investigations under way related to alleged contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Two dozen U.S. citizens had been charged or indicted.

A command spokesman said Tuesday he did not have updated numbers available and could not immediately comment on whether the $40 million in fuel stolen by Dubois was typical or extraordinary for such cases.

A separate agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said in its most recent report to Congress that it has 61 open investigations and has so far obtained 17 indictments and eight convictions.