If You Were Wondering What a Kleptocracy Looks Like...

Interesting ruling from U. S. District Court Judge T. S. Ellis (Reagan appointee), it was perfectly legal to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq because, apparently, it never legally existed.

Parsing a legal decision from a newspaper report is always dicey, but here goes. Custer Battles LLC contracted with the CPA to create a new Iraqi dinar, something without Saddam's picture on it. Using shell companies and fake invoices, they defrauded the CPA out of millions of dollars. A jury found Custer Battles guilty and fined it $10 million.

The Custer Battles attorney argued that the CPA was not a United States government agency and, hence, no fraud was done to the United States. Now, the CPA was created by the Department of Defense, funded by the United States Treasury, and headed by a Bush appointee, L. Paul Bremer. Still....

Blame the Justice Department
It would be wrong to blame the judge in this. The Justice Department created a unique definition for this case. According to the Justice Department, the CPA is a government agency for the purposes of the whistleblower law but is not a government agency for any other purposes. The reason for this twisted logic is the Justice Department's desire to defend the numerous companies that defrauded the CPA. If the Justice Department claimed the CPA was not a goverment agency for all purposes then whistleblowers could challenge the ruling with standing as injured parties. By allowing whistleblowers to sue only as whistleblowers, their status is treated differently from the greater fraud. The Justice Department's position means that American citizens, taxpayers, have no standing to sue. Even though we were defrauded billions of dollars by numerous corrupt contractors the money was laundered through the CPA before it was stolen. Since the CPA was an outlaw organization, we are screwed.

Thinking about this has given me a headache. Must lie down.

The Fraud that keeps on taking
The Iraqi dinar is still ripping off Americans. There is a bustling cottage industry selling dinars as a currency investment. I won't call it a scam because I don't want to defend a libel suit, I am certain they are all perfectly legal ventures. But anyone who exchanges American greenbacks for dinars thinking they will be making a fortune in the currency market needs to get the word "Sucker" tattooed on his forehead.

tag: iraq