Pentagon paid $998,798 to ship two 19-cent washers.

[ProSense]

Pentagon paid $998,798 to ship two 19-cent washers. The Pentagon paid a small South Carolina parts supplier about $20.5 million over six years “for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas. The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq.”

[MADem]

1. Thieves exploited a flaw in the shipping system, is what happened

The details:

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a_pIZ20xQxeU&refer=home


Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina -- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled ``priority'' were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.

C&D and two of its officials were barred in December from receiving federal contracts. Today, a federal judge in Columbia, South Carolina, accepted the guilty plea of the company and one sister, Charlene Corley, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to launder money, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said.

Corley, 46, was fined $750,000. She faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on each count and will be sentenced soon, McDonald said in a telephone interview from Columbia. Stroot said her sibling died last year.
...

[Nomad559]

2. Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x301877

:)

[DeSwiss]

3. Posted

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1600683

:)

[ProSense]

4. Oooh,

with graphics! Rec'd.

[marions ghost]

5. Guess it was fun

while it lasted....

Did they blow all the money already?

[Babsbrain]

6. Normally, this would create outrage.

We are way past outrage. If the government cannot take better care of how they spend our money, we must stop giving them the means to make us the laughingstock of the whole world.