Remember how wingnuts convinced everyone that unregulated business is good for America? And how privitization would help us deliver services more efficiently?
A Lexington County businesswoman admitted in court Thursday she bilked U.S. taxpayers for $20.5 million in shipping costs for Pentagon supplies, a crime that also led her twin sister to commit suicide.
Charlene Corley, 46, pleaded guilty to a nine-year fraud that included charging the Pentagon $998,798.38 for shipping two 19-cent bolt washers.
Corley and her sister Darlene Wooten created companies to launder the money, then bought four beach homes, 10 luxury cars, boats and jewelry and took expensive vacations, federal prosecutors said.
The company Corley and Wooten owned, C & D Distributors on Augusta Highway, also received $445,640.75 for shipping an $8.75 plumbing tube elbow and $492,096.99 for a $10.99 threaded machine plug, according to the charges.
Pentagon records show C & D received $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Bloomberg news service reported.
Altogether, C & D submitted invoices to the Defense Department for shipping costs that totaled $71,611,296.12, according to the charges released for the first time Thursday.
The sisters are apparently old Kentucky Republican money. Their families had ties in banking and real estate.
Corley remained calm and controlled in court. She said little beyond answering the judge’s questions and declined comment afterward. She could face up to 40 years for this crime.
Ms Wooten, Ms Corley’s sister, shot herself and left a suicide note explaining how to get to the family profits.
But prosecutors said they can show Corley knew the shipping costs, worked with local suppliers to get equipment for the Pentagon, corresponded with the Defense Department and was a contact on the computerized forms used to bid on the contracts.... The government said they began defrauding taxpayers by November 1997 and continued until September 2006.
They created a fake company to launder their money. They used your money to buy Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus, 23 foot luxury boats and fine jewelry in New York and Alaska vacations.
Link: http://www.thestate.com/...
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Does this Republican escape justice? Well...depends on what you believe about teh afterlife.
Wooten committed suicide in October 2006 after being contacted by authorities about the case, according to prosecutors. Before doing so, she wrote a $4 million check to the Defense Department, McDonald said.
Link: http://www.boston.com/...
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So is this the only way tax dollars have been lost? Hardly. It's probably only scratching the surface.
But Winslow Wheeler, of the Center for Defense information, says the case demonstrates just how big of a mess the Pentagon’s auditing system still is, reports Attkisson. In the 1980s, Wheeler worked for Congress tracking the scandal where the Pentagon was found paying $400 for a hammer.
"Nobody fixed the fundamental problem. As a matter of fact, it’s worse," said Wheeler.
Link: http://americanpatriotjournal.com/...
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There you have it. Unregulated business, unfettered capitalism, that’s the way to go. Is this really the way competition and free enterprise is supposed to work?
Too bad this story is buried behind the mining tragedy which is also the consequence of Republican policies.