Adam J.J. Pudenz, Violating Post-Government Employment Restrictions, Iowa 2015

A former Captain in the United States Air Force (USAF) was sentenced to two concurrent three-year terms of probation after pleading guilty to violating restrictions on post-government employment and making a false statement to federal authorities.

Adam J.J. Pudenz, 35, of Carroll, Iowa, was sentenced by Senior United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett on [No date specified] in United States District Court in Sioux City, Iowa, after having earlier pleaded guilty on March 10, 2015, to a two-count criminal information that charged him with willfully violating federal conflict-of-interest laws.

Pudenz, who served as a U.S. military contracting officer representative in Afghanistan in 2010, was found guilty of violating federal conflict-of-interest laws stemming from his post-government employment with an Afghan clothing manufacturer in Kabul, Afghanistan.

According to the criminal information, the plea agreement, exhibits, and other documents filed in the case, Pudenz began negotiating for future employment with the same Afghan company that held the contracts he administered – a fact he later denied when interviewed by U.S. law enforcement agents.

Pudenz received from the military a legal opinion that specifically prohibited him from working for the company that held the contracts he administered in Afghanistan. However, he disregarded this legal advice and signed an agreement with that company, returning to Afghanistan in March 2011.

Pudenz was found to have repeatedly lobbied U.S. government officials in person and via email on behalf of his Afghan employer, directly tied to the same contracts he administered as a USAF officer the year before. In return, he was scheduled to receive $500,000 per year from his Afghan employer, of which $250,000 was paid up front in March 2011.

As part of his plea agreement with the United States, Pudenz will forfeit his home in Carroll, Iowa, purchased with his ill-gotten gains. He also will forfeit three Afghan still rugs.

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