“Unfortunately, the U.S. occupation of Iraq has been viewed by some as “open season” on the American taxpayer,” said Abercrombie, who chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces. “At least ten companies, with contracts worth billions of dollars to provide goods and services to our troops in Iraq, have already paid more than $300-million in penalties over allegations of bid rigging, gross overcharging, fraud, and delivery of faulty military parts.  For U.S. companies to engage in unscrupulous business practices when they’re being paid to support American men and women in combat is war profiteering at its most grotesque.”

Abercrombie’s legislation, introduced in the Senate by Patrick Leahy (VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would make such profiteering—overcharging in order to defraud or profit excessively from war, military action or reconstruction efforts— a felony, subject to up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1-million or twice the illegal profits of the crime. The bill also confers jurisdiction to U.S. federal courts to hear such cases.

“Congress has provided no oversight in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Abercrombie said. “As a result, billions of tax dollars are unaccounted for; many services and products which were paid for were never delivered; and there are many, many examples of gross overcharging for everything from food, gasoline and water to vehicles.

While there are anti-fraud laws to protect against the waste or theft of U.S. tax dollars in the United States, there have been no statutes prohibiting such actions overseas.

Most of the contract fraud has been uncovered by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, with a staff of 55 auditors and investigators to oversee billions of dollars in contracts awarded to U.S. companies.  The office was created at the insistence of Congressional Democrats in 2004.  When the Republican majority attempted to terminate the Iraq Inspector General’s Office late last year, Abercrombie co-sponsored legislation to expand its oversight and accounting authority instead.

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