Executive Fraud Blog

A defense contractor was sentenced in Washington Friday to 46 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.6 million for fraud in Iraq's reconstruction.

The U.S. Justice Department said Philip Bloom, 67, of Bucharest, Romania, also was sentenced to two years' probation.

Bloom was arrested at Newark (N.J.) International Airport in November 2005. He pleaded guilty last March to bribery, money laundering and conspiracy in a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

The defendant conspired with U.S. officials and several high-ranking U.S. Army officers to rig bids in al-Hillah, Iraq, from December 2003 through December 2005, the department said.

Some of the money obtained in the conspiracy was used to buy weapons for personal use in the United States, the department said.

Bloom has cooperated in the investigation. Five other defendants have been prosecuted, including a U.S. Army colonel and two lieutenant colonels who were named in a 25-count indictment Feb. 1.