Charles Joseph Bowie Jr., Money Laundering, Texas 2006

WASHINGTON – A retired U.S. Army Major pleaded guilty to accepting $400,000 from a contractor following his deployment to Kuwait, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.

Charles Joseph Bowie Jr., 45, of Georgetown, Texas, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Stein Nowak in the Western District of Texas to a criminal information charging him with one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

According to the court document, Bowie served in Kuwait from April 2004 to April 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While serving in Kuwait, Bowie became friends with former U.S. Army Major John Cockerham, who directed a government contractor to pay Bowie money in exchange for the award of a bottled water contract.

Bowie admitted that he received four wire transfers of approximately $100,000 each from the contractor between July 2005 and February 2006. Bowie also admitted that he entered into a sham consulting agreement with the contractor to conceal the payments.

Cockerham pleaded guilty in February 2008 to participating in a complex bribery and money laundering scheme while working as an Army contracting officer in Kuwait. According to court documents, he was responsible for awarding contracts for services to be delivered to troops in Iraq, including bottled water. In return for awarding these contracts, Cockerham admitted receiving more than $9 million in bribe proceeds.

Bowie faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the amount of the criminally derived property he received. In addition, Bowie has agreed to pay $400,000 in restitution to the United States. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled by the court.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Richard B. Evans of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and Trial Attorneys Mark W. Pletcher and Emily W. Allen of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case is being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigations Division, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security.

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