Ex-Pentagon Contractor Gets Prison Term

WASHINGTON -- A former Pentagon contractor has been sentenced to nine years in prison for helping steer millions of dollars in Iraqi reconstruction aid to a businessman in exchange for plane tickets, watches, alcohol, cigars and sexual favors.

Robert Stein, 52, of Fayetteville, N.C., was also ordered Monday to forfeit $3.6 million and serve three years' probation, the Justice Department said.

Stein served as a comptroller and funding officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He pleaded guilty in February 2006 to bribery, money laundering conspiracy and other charges.

He admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen with businesses in Romania, Bruce D. Hopfengardner, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, and others including several high-ranking Army officers.

Bloom, who controlled companies in Iraq and Romania, bid on projects using dummy corporations and Stein ensured that one of the firms was awarded the contract, according to court documents. Bloom received over $8.6 million in rigged contracts, prosecutors said.

The businessman allegedly showered Hopfengardner and Stein with luxury gifts such as cash, premium airline seats, jewelry and sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.

Prosecutors said Bloom laundered over $2 million in reconstruction money that Stein and others stole. The money was laundered through Bloom's foreign bank accounts and kicked back to Stein and other officials, prosecutors said.

Hopfengardner and Bloom have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.