Cheney's Ex-Company Settles Fraud Suit

Fri Feb 8, 2:01 PM ET

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A defense contractor once overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) will pay the government $2 million to settle allegations it defrauded the military, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Houston-based Kellogg Brown & Root, an offshoot of the worldwide energy giant Halliburton, was accused of inflating contract prices for maintenance and repairs at Fort Ord, a now-shuttered military installation near Monterey.

The company admitted no liability, and denies any wrongdoing, said Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall. The settlement precludes further investigations and penalties, and she said Halliburton anticipates it will continue to be a major military contractor.

"We're huge," she said. Though she could provide no immediate contract estimates, she noted Halliburton holds the services contracts for the U.S. deployment in the Balkans.

Cheney was Halliburton's chairman and chief executive when the alleged fraud occurred, but no evidence surfaced that he knew of it. Democrats made the federal grand jury investigation an issue before the 2000 election.

Cheney spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise declined comment Friday.

The suit, filed in Sacramento, alleged the company submitted false claims and made false statements in connection with 224 delivery orders between April 1994 and September 1998.

Under the terms of its contract, the company did not bid against other contractors for maintenance and repair projects, instead presenting the military with fixed costs it said were necessary to perform specific projects.

One of the company's delivery order managers, Dammen Campbell, helped prepare the contract prices and filed a whistle-blower complaint that was also settled by the federal agreement with Halliburton. He will receive an undisclosed share of the settlement, said Patty Pontello, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Vincent.

-- (Tricky Dick @ leaves trail. of corruption), February 15, 2002

Answers

Dammen gets an undisclosed share of the two mil. That's good. Don't know what it costs for a name change but he'll be able to afford it.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), February 16, 2002.