A small South Carolina parts supplier
collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon
for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two
19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.
The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three
machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq,
and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force
Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.
The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina
-- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense
Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas
or U.S. bases that were labeled "priority'' were usually paid
automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.
C&D and two of its officials were barred in December from
receiving federal contracts. Today, a federal judge in Columbia,
South Carolina, accepted the guilty plea of the company and one
sister, Charlene Corley, to one count of conspiracy to commit
wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to launder money,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said.
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