Ethics Fraud CaseEssay Preview: Ethics Fraud CaseReport this essayThe fraud case I chose to look at was a former Department of Defense contractor that is being sentenced to nine years in jail for exploiting his public position. The contractor, Robert J. Stein, pleaded guilty on February 2, 2006 to being a felon in procession of a firearm, procession of machine guns, bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority in al-Hillah, Iraq (Former).
Robert Stein bribed governmental officials and high ranking officers to award all contracts to his company. In exchange, Stein gave the officials money, cars, jewelry, a motorcycle, airline tickets, future employment, and liquor among other items. On top of that, Stein laundered over two million dollars meant for the reconstruction of Iraq from the company he worked for, the Coalition Provisional Authority, while serving as their Comptroller and Funding Officer. In total Robert Stein received 8.6 million dollars worth of rigged contracts (Former). For his fraud, Stein has received nine years in prison and 3 years of supervised release.
I agree with the punishment that Stein received for bribery and laundering. As a contractor he is supposed to bid for contracts and then follow through on the bids. Stein showed that he could care less about what he was actually supporting, as long as he got money for it. He also took two million dollars that was supposed to go towards the rebuilding of Iraq. While soldiers are over there putting their life on the line while trying to keep the peace with whats left, Stein was looking out for himself. I believe that even though he has cooperated throughout the investigation, Robert Stein should be put away for at least 20 years for what I see as actions against the United States military.
Powell, D., “Stein’s First Fledgling Offices,” (2001) p. 3.
Roberts-Hagen, D., “Richard and a Look at Heil Stein,” (1998) p. 43.
[Note: the source of this story is found by a researcher at Columbia University. You can read The Stone Age’s interview with Robert Steele in which Steele is interviewed over a 3 1/2 hour long period in which he makes the following points about Stein:)
Stein took a job in the Clinton Foundation for 9 days and on that day broke off a small deal, including one to buy a $5,000 laptop to use for his “secret service.”
[Note: The source of this story is found by a researcher at Columbia University. You can read The Stone Age’s interview with Robert Steele in which Steele is interviewed over a 3 1/2 hour long period in which he makes the following points about Stein:) The Clintons got their money for everything, even if the actual source of that money was actually a lobbyist who is using the donations for his own benefit. Clinton told the New York Times in 1997 that when her wife, former First Lady Barbara Bush, and then-Senator Bush donated, the government received money because she was too busy running for president to help out with the foundation. Stein said of Bush, quote, “I’m really shocked. I mean her work for money was amazing.” But what did the Clintons do in exchange? They paid for their own vacations. Stein said that when they paid for her jetliner for the summer vacation, she and the jetliner’s contractor decided to use an account that is now called “the Clinton Foundation.” That account was opened as “the Hillary Clinton Foundation” by a top Clinton aide to Stein. When he did not accept what he called a “pay-to-play” system, the Clinton Cash files revealed, as he has told the American people, that Bill and Hillary Clinton were actually getting help from the State Department. Stein said this account was “not an excuse” for giving money to an official like Secretary Clinton, which he says the State Department actually is at times doing to “fund” the work of charities and other groups running for U.S. presidents. Stein said he believes that his case for awarding those grants to the Clinton Foundation is also grounded in the fact that he saw Clinton getting money for something she did not do for another government’s benefit. Stein claimed in his deposition that he never received the grant paperwork that shows that $5 million was actually transferred to the Clinton Foundation: “I did not receive a receipt for the Clinton Foundation, but I learned that my own organization, the Foundation of Global Change, is part of this.
After the case, and several others Im sure, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty announce the National Procurement Fraud Initiative to be fully active (Former). The program is designed to promote early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs (Former). Along with this the Deputy Attorney General has created the Procurement Fraud Task Force, which will basically keep an eye out and prosecute anyone found guilty.
I believe that in this case Stein should have been monitored by someone above him at all times. If he was getting contracts worth millions he should have had somebody checking where everything was going related to the contract. Although he is in the wrong, his management failed him by giving him the temptation and freedom to commit such fraud. If I were his manager I would have made sure that there were checks and balances with the contractors. Also, as I learned from MGT 345, I would have made sure that as a company we would have an ethical code that would emphasize how important we are to