U.S. Uncovers Iraq Bribe Case

The next day, someone showed up with a shopping bag containing $800,000 in U.S. and Kuwaiti bills, the affidavit said. The unidentified man took her to a bank in Kuwait where she deposited the money into a safe-deposit box.

Authorities said Melissa Cockerham subsequently went home to Texas but returned to Kuwait for a similar mission in 2005, this time arriving with her sister and the three Cockerham children. She left her children with her sister in Kuwait and allegedly traveled to Dubai with a woman her husband had introduced her to.

In Dubai, the woman gave her a bag with $500,000 in Emirati and U.S. currency, and took her to a bank, where she opened a safe-deposit box and deposited the money, Melissa Cockerham told authorities, according to the affidavit.

She said her husband arranged the meetings with such people, including the woman in Dubai, who John Cockerham thought was the sister of the president of a U.S. company that did government contract work. Melissa Cockerham told authorities she did not want to ask her husband "too many questions."

At some point, according to the affidavit, John Cockerham started keeping a handwritten ledger of money given to him or to other people for him. Blake also kept a ledger of the $3.1 million she allegedly collected on her brother's behalf. Blake apparently used a code to identify people who paid her, writing amounts next to a variety of assumed names -- for example, Mr. & Mrs. Pastry: $340,000.

Blake's ledger, which has been seized by government authorities, also shows she took her cuts. One note read: "Carolyn's 10 %."

According to the investigator's affidavit, Blake acknowledged that she kept a ledger, but she says it was for a different purpose. She said she wanted to start a church in Africa. On a trip to South Africa, she visited a school for poor girls funded by television star Oprah Winfrey. Blake says she was inspired to do something similar, according to Wilson, her attorney. "She thought this was a calling from God," Wilson said.

Blake said her brother gave her the names of people who might want to contribute, the affidavit says. Blake said she called them and they made pledges, which she recorded on the ledger. Her attorney said she never got a dime.

Cockerham returned to San Antonio in December 2005 and was on temporary duty at Guantanamo Bay for three months at the end of 2006. On Dec. 21, 2006, investigators searched his house and found the ledgers, as well as papers showing Melissa Cockerham had opened a bank account in the Caribbean. In separate interviews on the day of the search and the day after, Cockerham and his wife admitted to the scheme, according to the affidavit. Their versions of what happened differ, however, casting more confusion on where the money went.

Melissa Cockerham said the $800,000 payment that she picked up in 2004 went to a safe-deposit box in Kuwait; John Cockerham said it went to a box in Dubai. Melissa Cockerham said the payment she collected in 2005 was $500,000 that went to a safe-deposit box in Dubai; her husband said it was $300,000 in a safe-deposit box in Kuwait.

After the home search and his discussions with authorities, Cockerham made efforts to maintain a normal life. In May, he started a nonprofit called God Anointed You Church in San Antonio. In July, he and his wife visited his home town of Castor, where they had their two sons baptized at New Friendship Baptist Church.

When they returned to San Antonio on July 22, John and Melissa Cockerham were arrested by federal authorities and charged in connection with the scheme. They were living in a new house on the base, which authorities searched. Among the items found this time were incriminating e-mails from John Cockerham, some dated as recently as July 10, and other documents that, according to the government, reflected an effort to cover up the scheme. The documents appeared to offer advice to co-conspirators on how to cover their tracks.

At a July 31 hearing, prosecutors argued that the Cockerhams were flight risks. The judge agreed, denied them bail and ordered the couple back to jail. They were re-shackled and shuffled out of the courtroom -- Melissa expressionless, John looking at friends and family members and giving a faint smile. As he walked out, his sister Mabel lowered herself to her knees, turned around, leaned on a courtroom pew and began to pray.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.