James Paul Clifton, Bribery, Virginia 2009

Former US Army Official Sentenced for Bribery

James Paul Clifton, 35, of Newport News, Va., has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for accepting more than $80,000 in bribes in exchange for corruptly providing contract work to two Afghan trucking companies.

Clifton was assigned to be the contracting officer representative (COR) at Bagram Airfield in February 2008. His duties included overseeing the companies providing ground transportation to and from Bagram Airfield and objectively determining whether the companies’ service had been adequate.

According to the plea agreement, employees for AIT, a trucking company operating at Bagram Airfield, began to offer Clifton gifts almost immediately after he was assigned to his position. Despite initially refusing the gifts, Clifton admitted he accepted a cellular telephone in May 2008, paid for by AIT. AIT then began to make payments to Clifton at a rate of $20,000 a month. Clifton admitted that in exchange for the payments, he agreed to assign one extra day of trucking service to the company.

Clifton also admitted that later in the month, another Afghan trucking company, ATT, entered into a similar illegal agreement with him. Clifton further admitted that in exchange for bribe payments of $15,000 a month, he assigned ATT an additional day of trucking service a month. Between May and October 2008, Clifton admitted, ATT and AIT made $87,000 in payments to him.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve A. Linick, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Fraud Section Trial Attorney Liam Brennan. The investigation is being conducted by Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI and members of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force.

In addition to his prison term, Clifton was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. The bribes were paid to Clifton through his then-girlfriend in Newport News, Va., with affiliates of both companies wiring the payments from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The National Procurement Fraud Task Force was created in October 2006 by the Department of Justice to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in government contracting activity for national security and other government programs.

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