Southern District of New York
DECEMBER 17, 2010 ELLEN DAVIS,
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced that BRYANT WILLIAMS was
found guilty today by a Manhattan federal jury of one count of
honest services mail fraud and one count of demanding and
accepting bribes while he was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. U.S.
District Judge BARBARA S. JONES presided over the two-week trial.
WILLIAMS, 39, faces a total maximum sentence of 35 years in
prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 18, 2011.
Manhattan U.S. ATTORNEY PREET BHARARA stated: “Bryant
Williams abused his position of authority to extract bribes from
military contractors and to enrich himself in the process.
Today’s guilty verdict sends a strong message that neither law
enforcement officials nor juries will tolerate corrupt actors in
our military.”
According to the documents previously filed in this
case and the evidence introduced at trial:
From 2005 through 2006, while stationed in Baghdad,
Iraq, WILLIAMS served as a captain and procurement officer with
the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. In his position,
WILLIAMS had the ability to purchase supplies and services that
cost less than $2,500 on behalf of the U.S. Army and to
participate in the solicitation of bids, assist in the selection
of contractors, and oversee the administration and completion of
U.S. Army contracts that were worth between $2,500 and $200,000.
The jury found that WILLIAMS unlawfully demanded and
accepted payments in return for using his position to help
certain contractors receive over $930,000 in U.S. Government
contracts. As part of this scheme, WILLIAMS forged bids on
behalf of other companies, knowingly collected false and forged
bids from certain contractors, and on one occasion, threatened a
contractor with a firearm in the course of demanding payment of
bribes.
In an attempt to conceal some of the payments he
received, WILLIAMS provided a contractor with a mailing address
in Iowa and directed that thousands of dollars in cash payments
be sent to that address. Following WILLIAMS’s directions, the
contractor mailed packages containing thousands of dollars from
the New York and Michigan. Moreover, WILLIAMS provided another
contractor with thousands of dollars in bribery proceeds to wire
to another individual.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Army Criminal
Investigation Command, and the U.S. Department of Defense,
Defense Criminal Investigative Service .
This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s
Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys LOYAAN A. EGAL
and STEVE C. LEE are in charge of this prosecution.
10-407 ###
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MANHATTAN FEDERAL JURY CONVICTS U.S. MILITARY OFFICER OF HONEST SERVICES FRAUD AND ACCEPTING BRIBES WHILE STATIONED IN IRAQ
