The US military paid 285 billion dollars over three years to hundreds of military contractors that defrauded the Pentagon over the same stretch of time, a US senator charged Wednesday.
Brandishing a 45-page January 2011 US Department of Defense report on the issue, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders called for “far more vigorous enforcement” by the US military “to protect taxpayers from massive fraud.”
“The sad truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money,” he charged.
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Sanders underlined that the report, which his office made public, showed that from 2007-2009 the Pentagon spent 270 billion dollars on 91 contractors involved in fraud cases that yielded judgments of more than one million dollars.
The Pentagon also spent 683 million over the same period on 30 contractors convicted of criminal fraud charges, and “billions more” went to firms that it had suspended or barred for misusing government funds, said Sanders.
The senator, who represents the small northeastern state of Vermont, highlighted a section of the report in which the Pentagon declared existing remedies as “sufficient.”
3 thoughts on “Senator: Pentagon paid billions to ‘fraudsters’”
Bernie only got one side of the bean sac Al, fe fi fo,
cut him some slack, those are 60’s frames he’s sportin.
Pop would call it , googly eyed,
but in Bernie’s defense,
I think he’s looked away too long for the blinding re-glance without,
his shades.
So, welcome to the party, Bernie… too bad you couldn’t make it on time. Fraud in the Pentagon new ??? I don’t think so.
Gee, Bernie looks not simply outraged, but terrified to the fact that the numbers are so large and that he knows in his heart of hearts nothing is going to change. It’s as if he and his Senatorial brethren bloated on alcohol, steaks, fine cigars and fast women only pay attention to business ‘on occasion’. / : |
Senator Patrick Leahy has the same schtick; ie., always calling for investigations while kvetching about some current scandal or fraud and nothing ever gets done. It’s simply high theater for the unwashed masses.
Carl Nemo **==
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