Two Charged with Conspiracy Against Department of Defense

In an announcement by the U.S. Justice Department, two individuals that used to work for Kellogg Brown and Root, Inc. have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the Department of Defense by a grand jury in Virginia's Eastern District. The two worked for the Fuel Section of the company. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg.

The two charged in the court documents are Wallace A. Ward of Columbus, Georgia (age 25) and James N. Sellman of Raeford, North Carolina (age 31). The various charges that they face are bribery, conspiracy, making false writing, and making a false claim to the Department of Defense.

It is stated in court reports that the two individuals in question were given the responsibility of checking in fuel deliveries for Coalition forces at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, and while on the job between May and September of 2006, they conspired to take bribes from Afghan truck drivers for the purpose of diverting fuel deliveries to other locations. The truck drivers paid Sellman and Ward an undisclosed amount of money to falsify government paperwork making it look like the fuel trucks were brought into the base and then letting the fuel be taken somewhere else. It is reported that more than 80 trucks of fuel were diverted and sold at other locations, which is approximately 784,000 gallons prices at around $2.1 million.

Bagram Airbase is a base with quite a lot of history behind it. The base played a major part during the occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet forces. It was a convenient location for troops to operate and supplies to be delivered, and air support for Soviet and Afghan fighters were sent out from the base.

It is located seven miles southeast of Charikar and 27 miles north of Kabul, and is within the Parvan Province. There is a 10,000 foot runway on the air strip for landing large supply air craft as well as bombers.