Two Individuals Sentenced to Prison for Offering to Bribe U.S. Army Contracting Official in Afghanistan

Rohullah Farooqi Lodin and Hashmatullah Farooqi were each sentenced today in Alexandria, Va., to four years in prison for their roles in a scheme to offer $1 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official in Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia. U.S. District Court Judge Liam O'Grady also sentenced Lodin, 48, from Irvine, Calif., and Farooqi, 38, from New York City, to each serve three years of supervised release following their prison term and ordered each to pay a $30,000 fine. Lodin and Farooqi, both dual Afghan/U.S. citizens, each pleaded guilty on Aug. 7, 2009, to one count of offering to bribe a public official. The U.S. Army in Afghanistan is responsible for the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), which enables U.S. Army commanders in Afghanistan to use U.S. monies to fund humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects, including road construction, in that country. According to court documents, in 2009, the U.S. Army solicited bids from contractors to design and build a road in Logar Province, Afghanistan (the Logar Road Contract). The U.S. Army received numerous bids on the Logar Road Contract, including $18 million bids each from National General Construction Company (NGCC) and Hamed Lais Group (Hamed Lais), both general contracting firms in Afghanistan that Lodin and Farooqi claimed to represent. Full release.