A former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor has pleaded guilty to taking $320,000 in bribes while overseeing an $8.1 million Afghan construction project.
The 48-year-old Springfield, Illinois, man pleaded guilty in July to “seeking and receiving bribes” and faces sentencing in federal court on Nov. 30, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mark Miller worked for the Corps from 2005 until 2015.
He admitted that on Dec. 10, 2009, the Corps awarded a $2.9 million contract to an Afghan construction company that was later increased to $8.1 million. Miller was in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012 to monitor the road construction project that went from eastern Afghanistan to the Pakistani border.
Miller’s job was to oversee the contract and verify the company performed the work and authorize payments to the company from the Army Corps.
He admitted that he solicited $280,000 in bribes from the company owners to assist with the project and ensure it was not terminated. He also received $40,000 in bribes after the contract ended for the “possibility of future contract work and other benefits.”
The case was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and prosecuted by the Justice Department’s criminal division office in central Illinois.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
