[JURIST] Three former US Army officers and two civilians were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday for charges relating to a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) [official website] in Iraq. Army Colonel Curtis G. Whiteford, Army Lt. Colonels Debra M. Harrison and Michael B. Wheeler allegedly engaged in a bidding scam with US businessman Philip H. Bloom that awarded over $8 million to contractors in exchange for money, cars, and jewelry. According to a DOJ press release the Army officers rigged "the bids on contracts being awarded by the CPA-SC so that all of the contracts were awarded to Bloom" and received in return "over $1 million in cash, SUVs, sports cars, a motorcycle, jewelry, computers, business class airline tickets, liquor, promise of future employment with Bloom, and other items of value."

In April, Bloom pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to charges of conspiracy, bribery and money laundering. Last month, he was sentenced to nine years imprisonment [JURIST report] on those charges, and told to forfeit $3.6 million he received for awarding contracts to American companies. AP has more.