WASHINGTON - A former senior construction manager who worked as an agent for an intergovernmental organization pleaded guilty today to seeking $190,000 in payments as a reward for steering U.S.-funded contracts in Afghanistan, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.; Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Inspector General Donald A. Gambatesa; Acting Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) Steven J Trent; and James

NEWARK, N.J. – The former president and CEO of New Jersey-based international engineering consulting company Louis Berger Group, Inc. (“LBG”) surrendered to the FBI this morning to face a six-count Indictment alleging he led a scheme to intentionally overbill the United States in connection with hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas reconstruction contracts over a nearly 20-year period, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

WASHINGTON - Michael A. Hase, 63, a former employee with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was sentenced today to 29 months in prison on federal charges of theft of government property and filing a false income tax return.

Kabul, Afghanistan – On Sunday, December 18, 2011, Din Mohammad Ramin, 26, was arrested on bribery charges in Kabul. The arrest was carried out by the Afghan National Police and by investigators from the Afghan Attorney General’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) with the assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG).

Washington, DC – On December 16, 2011, an ex-agent of a contractor working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was sentenced to 22 months in prison for seeking $190,000 in payments as a reward for steering U.S.-funded contracts in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, DC — Mark Deli Siljander, a former Michigan congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was sentenced in federal court on January 11, 2012, for obstruction of justice and for acting as an unregistered foreign agent related to his work for an Islamic charity with ties to international terrorism. Several officials and employees of that charity, the now-defunct Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) formerly headquartered in Columbia, Mo., also were sentenced in federal court on January 11.

WASHINGTON - Harbert Corporation, Harbert International, Inc., Bill Harbert International Constructions Inc., Harbert Construction Services (U.K.) Ltd. and Bilhar International Establishment have agreed to pay the United States $47 million to settle claims that they submitted false claims, and caused others to submit false claims, to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Justice Department announced today.

WASHINGTON - Mark Adams, 43, a former deputy director at a private USAID contractor, and his wife, Latasha Bell, 36, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they stole more than $1 million from a program meant to address global health problems such as HIV/AIDS. Among other things, Adams and Bell are accused in the indictment of using the money to renovate their home and purchase two luxury cars worth over $110,000.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Afghan Special Anti-Corruption Tribunal Court sentenced Din Mohammad Ramin, a former employee on a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine for soliciting and receiving a kickback of approximately $5,000.

Ramin was arrested on December 18, 2011 and sentenced on March 27, 2012. The action came as part of an on-going campaign against fraud and waste in U.S. aid efforts in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - Mark Adams, a former deputy director at a private contractor that did business with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and his wife, Latasha Bell, pled guilty today to federal conspiracy charges stemming from the embezzlement of more than $1 million from a program meant to address global health problems. Among other things, Adams and Bell admitted using the money to renovate their home and purchase a luxury car.