Since 2005, at least 115 enlisted military members have been convicted of crimes during their deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, including theft, bribery and contract rigging, valued at $52 million, according to a new report from the Center for Public Integrity (CPI).
"The U.S. military's dependence on large cash transactions, its hasty contract award process for high-value contracts, the absence of serious oversight, and a culture of local corruption that proved seductive ... helped lure U.S. service members to commit these crimes," wrote CPI.
The prosecutions only represent a small fraction of the number of fraudulent crimes committed by U.S. military personnel - most have yet to be discovered or are still being investigated, according to U.S. Inspectors General for Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of the biggest hurdles investigators face is tracking down funds in foreign bank accounts, and it becomes discouraging when courts impose lighter penalties than expected, according to CPI.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John F. Sopko told CPI that as of February, there were 327 active investigations still under way involving 31 military members. He said price fixing and other forms of corruption are among the most commonly committed crimes.
"You don't appreciate how much money is being stolen in Afghanistan until you go over there," he told CPI.
Sopko released a report in April revealing that the Pentagon is unable to account for at least $45 billion in tax dollars spent in Afghanistan since the start of the war. Another report detailed how the Pentagon can't account for $1.3 billion sent to U.S. emergency reconstruction programs. And that's likely just the tip of the iceberg.
CPI noted that one of the largest schemes engineered by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan involved stealing the U.S. military's fuel, secretly selling it to Afghan locals and pocketing the proceeds. Since the beginning of the war in 2001, U.S. military personnel stole $15 million worth of fuel, according to CPI.
The group looked into the case of U.S. Army Specialist Stephanie Charboneau, who was one of those who got involved in selling stolen fuel. She pocketed about $40,000, but is now serving a seven-year sentence in Carswell federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Additional crimes by military personnel are still under investigation, and some court records remain partly under seal," wrote CPI. "The magnitude of additional losses from fraud, waste, and abuse by contractors, civilians, and allied foreign soldiers in Afghanistan has never been tallied, but officials probing such crimes say the total is in the billions of dollars."
