Ex-Halliburton Employee Gets Jail Sentence

Saturday, November 19, 2005




ROCK ISLAND, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced a former employee of a Halliburton subsidiary to 15 months in prison Friday for accepting more than $100,000 in kickbacks from an Iraqi company that was awarded a construction contract in Iraq.

Glenn Allen Powell, 40, of Cedar Park, Texas, was also ordered to pay restitution of $91,000. He pleaded guilty in August to fraud and violating an anti-kickback law.

Prosecutors said he was a subcontracts administrator for Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc., which provides engineering and other project management services for the military.

In exchange for $110,300 in kickbacks, Powell recommended the Iraqi company for a $609,000 subcontract to renovate four buildings, prosecutors said. They declined to name the company.

An internal investigation by KBR in January uncovered the kickbacks.

Halliburton has said it removed the Iraqi company from its list of subcontractors and gave the military a credit for the amount of the kickback.

The case was prosecuted in Illinois because the Army Field Support Command at the Rock Island Arsenal oversees the military contract with KBR.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)