CULTURE OF CORRUPTION, IRAQ BRANCH

I've written about the other scandals, such as Paul Bremer's CPA handing out $8.8 billion in 100s, but the rot wasn't limited to the top.

NBC: Massive bid-rigging scam alleged in Iraq
U.S. says businessman bribed coalition officials
to land rebuilding contracts
By Aram Roston
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 8:57 p.m. ET Nov. 16, 2005

WASHINGTON - A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Washington on Wednesday alleges a web of corruption and bid rigging in Iraq by officials who worked with the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led agency that ran Iraq for more than a year after the 2003 invasion.
The complaint accuses an American-Romanian businessman, Philip H. Bloom, of paying officials from the coalition’s south-central region "bribes, kickbacks and gratuities, amounting to at least $200,000 per month," in order to obtain reconstruction contracts through a bid-rigging scam.
According to the complaint, Bloom "conspired with United States government contract employees and military officials to obtain fraudulently government contracts."
Bloom or companies he controls made bank deposits of $353,000 on behalf of at least two CPA officials and bought them real estate in North Carolina as well as vehicles and jewelry worth more than $280,000 in 2004 and 2005, McKenna said.
The complaint says one of the U.S. officials was the comptroller for the region in Iraq based in Hillah and controlled $82 million in cash.