Thank you, Michael (Michael Mason, Verizon) for that kind introduction. And thank you, Sheriff Leidholt (NSA President Michael Leidholt, Sheriff of Hughes County, South Dakota) and Sheriff Kennard (NSA Executive Director Aaron Kennard, Sheriff of Salt Lake County, Utah). It’s a privilege to be here this morning. First, because I have great admiration for what you and your colleagues do every day. And second, because in a way, this is a homecoming for me.
I began my career many years ago in local law-enforcement, as an assistant county prosecutor with the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s office in Dayton, Ohio –a city which we Ohioans proudly refer to as the birthplace of airsickness. I was pretty junior back then, but my boss worked closely with then-Sheriff Bernard Keiter, who was Sheriff of Montgomery County from 1953 to 1978. And, I should note and some of you may recall, he was president of the National Sheriffs’ Association in 1974 and 1975.
I would go on to become a federal prosecutor with the organized crime strike force in Cleveland, prosecuting the mob in both Cleveland and Youngstown. But it was in Dayton where I learned the nuts and bolts of being a prosecutor and where I learned that local law-enforcement is the backbone of the criminal justice system, because the fight against crime begins with the “boots on the ground” provided by county sheriffs and other local law enforcement agencies. You’re the experts on what’s happening in your local communities, since you’re on the front lines every day.
I have tremendous respect for what you and your colleagues do. I say this not only as someone who began his career as a county prosecutor working closely with my local county sheriff’s office. I say this also as the head of a federal agency which works closely with local sheriff’s offices across the United States. And, candidly, we are looking to expand our cooperation and partnerships where we can in the future. That is why I am here today to tell you a little about my agency and how you can help us catch some crooks who are stealing from you, the American taxpayer, in a country called Afghanistan which is thousands of miles away from you here in the united states.
SIGAR and Sheriff’s Offices – An Emerging Partnership
Before I talk about my agency and how you can help us, let me give you some examples of how we are working in close partnerships with sheriff’s offices today throughout the United States. These local sheriff’s offices help us with the gamut of law enforcement work – sharing intelligence, conducting interviews, executing search warrants, making arrests.
In North Carolina, we have a SIGAR agent embedded at Fort Bragg. His duties include working independently in remote areas throughout the region. He works closely with sheriff’s offices throughout the state – from Cumberland County to Guilford County to Craven County. And let me tell you, the assistance of local law-enforcement is invaluable to him.
He also ventures into South Carolina, where he’s worked with the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, and to Georgia, where he’s worked with the Bibb County Sheriff.
Meantime, in Mercer County, West Virginia, a sheriff’s deputy helped a SIGAR agent track down a subject and avoid an unnecessarily risky situation. The agent had planned to approach the subject at their home. But the deputy told our agent that this address is in an area known for illegal narcotics sales and violent crime.
So instead of an anticipated “knock & talk” in this sketchy area, our agent conducted the interview in a public setting – with the deputy at his side. Without this help, our agent could have been in a needlessly dangerous situation.
We also have an agent down in Tyler, Texas. Recently, Sheriff Ray Nutt, of Henderson County, Texas, assigned an investigator to work with our agent on a significant money-laundering investigation. This ongoing case involves alleged wire transfers of money from Afghanistan to the United States. Sheriff Nutt’s investigator has provided invaluable assistance – reviewing records to determine the subject’s address; scouring local banking transactions to look for possible scams linked to this case; and helping our agent interview the subject.
This cooperation is helping move our investigation forward – and saving taxpayers money.
This agent also works closely with Sheriff Larry Smith of nearby Smith County, Texas, who has pledged to cooperate with any SIGAR investigation. We’re grateful for the assistance.
And out in California, SIGAR is establishing a close relationship with Sheriff Bill Gore of San Diego County, which as you know is a major hub for the Marines and the Navy. Sheriff Gore is a former top FBI agent, as is Doug Domin, SIGAR’s Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, and SIGAR Agent Terry Wyllie. So we’re leveraging the relationships that our senior SIGAR investigators have from their previous careers, creating new relationships that we hope will help us better go after those who would commit crimes related to the U.S. reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.
Finally, closer to home, SIGAR is forging close relationships with a number of sheriffs, including Sheriff Mike Chapman of Loudoun County, Virginia, and Sheriff Dana Lawhorne of Alexandria County, Virginia. We look forward to working closely with Sheriff Chapman and Sheriff Lawhorne and their teams – as we look forward to working closely with all of you.
SIGAR 101
Now, you’re probably asking yourselves – who does this guy work for and what is this obscure agency, and who the heck named it after a tobacco product? To be honest with you, I’ve heard a lot of funny bureaucratic acronyms in my day, but this one takes the cake!
Well, let me give you the “Reader’s Digest” version:
Congress created the Office of Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction – or “SIGAR” – in 2008. The law calls for SIGAR to provide independent and objective oversight of Afghanistan reconstruction projects and activities. It’s not pocket change: Since 2002, congress has appropriated nearly $100 billion for relief and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
The law also empowers SIGAR to conduct audits and investigations to: (1) promote efficiency and effectiveness of reconstruction programs; and (2) detect and prevent waste, fraud and abuse.
This is where SIGAR investigators come in. Our agents are full-fledged federal law-enforcement officers: badged, authorized to carry weapons, and empowered to make arrests (except of Afghans on their home soil).
They investigate crimes involving federal procurement fraud, contract fraud, theft, corruption, bribery of public officials, and a range of civil matters related to waste and abuse of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
We aggressively pursue the prosecution of criminal wrongdoing through the U.S. Department of Justice and the DOJ Fraud Section’s National Procurement Fraud Task Force. We also support Uniform Code of Military Justice actions prosecuted by judge advocates, and we execute civil recovery actions through appropriate federal and military procedures.
Since our inception, SIGAR has initiated more than 600 investigations. Our work has resulted in 60 convictions and guilty pleas and 45 sentencings. $230 million in recoveries and savings. $63 million frozen in bank accounts. And $9 million in associated criminal fines and restitution.
Our work is far from done: we currently have more than 300 criminal investigations underway. We open more cases continually, and many of these come to us through our fraud hotline.
We know how important it is to get the word out, so we market our hotline aggressively – from ads in Stars & Stripes to public service announcements on the Armed Forces Network. We also run ads in the inflight magazine of Safi Airlines, an Afghan-flag carrier, and our investigations staff is working on expanding our outreach directly to the Afghan people through public service announcements on Afghan radio. The hotline can be accessed from our homepage – www.sigar.mil – and via email: sigar.hotline@mail.mil
Now, back to our people…
SIGAR agents average more than 20 years of experience in law-enforcement. Many got their start in local sheriff offices. Others I have recruited from the military. Many others are also retired and have decided to come back to help in the best way they could fight in the war on terrorism.
Their duties take them not only to locations throughout Afghanistan, but to stateside military bases, ports of entry, courthouses, prosecutors’ offices and other domestic locations touched by the ripples of criminality in Afghan reconstruction.
They’re backed by support staff – investigative analysts, forensic auditors, and forensic examiners – who bring an average of more than 10 years of professional experience to SIGAR.
In all, our Investigations Directorate comprises 57 staff – nearly one-third of the agency’s total workforce – with 36 at our Virginia headquarters and 21 – plus two foreign-national employees – deployed in Afghanistan.
I’m proud of them all – and I’m proud of this fact: SIGAR has one of the largest, most-experienced and longest-deployed groups of law-enforcement professionals in Afghanistan. Our presence in Afghanistan is robust not only in comparative size, but by mandate. By federal statute, SIGAR is the only U.S. oversight agency tasked exclusively with Afghan reconstruction. It is also the only one that can examine any aspect of the reconstruction effort, regardless of agency boundaries.
And as the U.S. drawdown continues, and more and more civilian law-enforcement personnel come home, SIGAR’s relative size in Afghanistan will grow.
Law Enforcement in Afghanistan – Tough Duty
SIGAR has offices in Kabul and several other locations in Afghanistan. We have staff assigned there on long-term tours, and we also send staff from our headquarters in Arlington on temporary assignments to Afghanistan.
Now, as you might imagine, serving as an American law-enforcement officer in Afghanistan can be tough duty.
Just to give you a sense of the realities of the place, here’s a quick rundown of the gear that SIGAR agents are “kitted up” with on a routine basis:
- Ballistic helmet;
- Body armor (with ceramic plates and tactical carrier);
- M-6 Carbine (manufactured by LWRC International) – fires a 5.56mm round; piston-driven, fully automatic short-barrel rifle with 4 to 6 30-round magazines;
- Sig Sauer 229 -- 9mm semi-automatic pistol, 4 magazines;
- Nomex gloves; and
- Satellite phone, radio, personnel locator, medical kit, ballistic eye protection, hearing protection, knives, chem-lights.
all, this gear – carried on missions and on air travel within the country – weighs about 70 pounds.
So when SIGAR agents go to work, they’re essentially outfitted like a SWAT officer. For good reason, since Afghanistan is still a war zone – with the constant threat of insurgent attacks and suicide bombings.
That’s in addition to the usual collection of thieves, bribe takers, money launderers and drug smugglers…
Let me tell you a story about one of my agents who’s seen more than his fair share of the kind of violence Afghanistan produces. He’s a former FBI agent named Jeff Millslagle – we call him “Mills.” Awhile back, he and another agent were knocked out of their chairs in the mess hall when insurgents staged a major attack at Forward Operating Base Salerno, in Khost Province near the Pakistan border. It’s thick with insurgents, and while the attackers were all killed, Mills emerged unscathed.
So we thought it would be nice to send him to the other side of Afghanistan, to Herat, where we have offices at the U.S. consulate there. Nice place, Herat. An ancient city not far from the border with Iran. Relatively quiet – certainly much less violent than Khost or Kandahar or Kabul.
That is, until September 13, 2013.
Early that morning, a truck packed with explosives rammed the consulate’s security gate and blew up. The blast killed several guards and heavily damaged the consulate, which sits on the side of a large hill, visible from miles away.
After the explosion, a group of armed insurgents tried to storm the compound. At least five of them were killed in the ensuing 20-minute firefight. Others retreated.
Mills immediately jumped into action to help the Regional Security Officer. He conducted an armed sweep to ensure that all U.S. Chief Of Mission personnel were accounted for, and that no insurgents had penetrated the consulate.
Mills also helped move casualties and held a weapons position covering the blown-open entrance to the consulate.
Once again, Mills emerged unscathed. Incidentally, he’s now our agent in Tyler, Texas. I promised him and his family that it’ll be a little quieter for him there, although he is one of my most aggressive agents and has more work than he can handle on his own.
I tell this story not only because I am exceedingly proud of Mills – I am -- but also because it illustrates the key challenge for U.S. law-enforcement personnel in Afghanistan: 12 years into our involvement there, and it’s still a war zone with a determined enemy intent upon causing harm to Americans and our allies.
Even without attacks, Afghanistan presents a daunting array of obstacles to American law enforcement. Travel is difficult. Customs and languages differ. Backup may be scant or nonexistent. Useful evidence or even basic documentation is hard to come by. The locals can be suspicious and uncooperative. Officials may be corrupt or cowed by threats. Suspects reported to Afghan authorities may never be prosecuted. U.S. officials have no legal authority to arrest Afghan nationals – and the United States has no extradition treaty with Afghanistan.
And I thought I had it tough when I prosecuted the Licavoli mob family in Cleveland – who, like the Taliban, had a penchant for using explosives against their enemies. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Cleveland was the bomb capitol of the world – but it pales in comparison to Afghanistan!
Meantime, cash from Afghanistan’s opium trade and from bribes, theft, and extortion -- related to inflows of U.S. aid -- fuels both corruption and the insurgency.
To meet these challenges, SIGAR has developed a multi-faceted strategy to protect the huge U.S. investment in Afghanistan. As the largest U.S. law-enforcement presence, SIGAR leverages its resources through close collaboration with other U.S., Afghan and international law-enforcement agencies.
Fraud Kills
Let me tell you about some of our notable cases. At the top of the list is an open criminal case we’ve developed involving potentially significant contract fraud in the installation and inspection of culvert-denial systems designed to prevent access to roadway culverts by insurgents.
Basically, these culvert-denial systems are steel grids that are welded over the openings to culverts. The objective is to make it impossible for insurgents to plant bombs under roads. Through our investigative work – I can’t say where, because it’s classified – we estimate that a large number of these systems may have been falsely reported by Afghan contractors as completed. In fact, they were either installed improperly -- with significant defects – or not installed at all. It pains me to say this, but we believe American troops died as a result of this fraud.
So, as some of our hotline advertising states, “fraud can kill.”
Our investigation is ongoing, so this is about all I can say. But I should note that SIGAR investigative personnel – an agent and support staff, protected by U.S. troops – inspected the area where this occurred, and confirmed this exceedingly dangerous situation. Last October, we sent an urgent letter to the commander of U.S. Central Command and the commander of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force)/U.S. forces, to alert them to this situation.
Another case that we’re proud of – but which also underscores the difficulties of working in Afghanistan – involves a SIGAR investigation that led to the freezing, by order of a U.S. federal judge, of $63 million in U.S. government funds. These funds, allegedly obtained through fraudulent means, were located in bank accounts held in Afghanistan and in correspondent banks in the United States and abroad.
These bank accounts are owned by an Afghan trucking contractor who, according to court documents, allegedly defrauded the United States of more than $77 million by charging inflated prices for trucking contracts to deliver U.S. military supplies.
These trucking contracts were allegedly obtained through bribes, kickbacks and bid-rigging.
Here’s the part I’m most proud of: This is the first time the U.S. government has attempted to freeze and then seize funds held by an Afghan contractor in an Afghan bank – and it was the direct result of the SIGAR investigation.
That’s the good news.
The not-so-good news: Last April, we learned that the freeze on these accounts in Afghanistan had been lifted and that the suspect had transferred the money out of the Afghan accounts to accounts in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an amended complaint for forfeiture of the assets and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued warrants against the funds.
The final chapter in this story remains to be told, but it shows just how difficult it is to do law-enforcement work in a place like Afghanistan.
So let me tell you a story that shows the creative ways SIGAR agents seek to overcome the obstacles inherent in working in Afghanistan.
I’ve noted that when we can, SIGAR works with Afghan law-enforcement. But it’s rare for a non-Afghan to even appear as a witness in that country’s criminal proceedings. Well, that’s exactly what happened last March, when a SIGAR Special Agent testified in an Afghan appellate court up in Mazar-e Sharif, a city in the north near the border with Uzbekistan. We believe it marked the first-ever testimony by a U.S. law-enforcement agent in an Afghan judicial proceeding.
The agent’s testimony was key: It helped the court reinstate charges, extend the prison sentence and double the fine imposed on an Afghan convicted of bribery and theft totaling more than $1 million related to U.S. reconstruction contract work. The agent’s testimony was based on his use of law-enforcement tools, including undercover work, consensual monitoring, aerial surveillance, informants and cooperation with Afghan police and prosecutors.
As this case shows, SIGAR’s agents are committed to the mission and continually look for ways to get the job done.
The Marines have a saying to show how they handle seemingly impossible situations – “Improvise, adapt and overcome.” I like to think that’s what our agents do as well – apologies to any of you who are “Army strong.” (I really don’t want to alienate any of the services, especially the Army -- because it’s them and the Marines who keep us safe when we venture “over the wire” in Afghanistan!)
Let me tell you one last story about a couple of cases that I’m very proud of, because they show our agency’s commitment to saving American taxpayer dollars – despite the best efforts of none other than their own government.
The first involves the Pentagon’s decision to move forward with the purchase of 48 Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan Special Mission Wing – at a cost to American taxpayers of $771.8 million – nearly $1 billion! – despite the fact, as uncovered by our audit team, that the Afghans can’t operate or maintain them.
You might have seen this on the news last year. It’s truly astounding. Our DOD wanted to push this through, despite the fact the Afghan Special Mission Wing can’t find recruits literate enough to undergo training. Despite the fact the Afghans don’t have the capacity to maintain these aircraft. Despite the fact that the Special Mission Wing has only 180 personnel, less than one-quarter needed to reach full strength. And, of these, only 7 of 47 pilots assigned to the wing are qualified to fly with night-vision goggles.
We think this doesn’t smell right. And so SIGAR is participating in a criminal investigation into the helicopter purchases, led by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
The second involves the Pentagon’s decision in 2008 to spend $486 million -- nearly a half-billion dollars -- on 20 Italian-made C-27A transport aircraft. This inquiry began like much of our work does because of tips provided to our agents who are out in the field in Afghanistan. On my last trip to Afghanistan, I inspected 16 of these aircraft that are rotting in the weeds at Kabul International Airport. The remainder sit abandoned at the U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany. They are in such a poor state, they probably cannot be flown out and will just be turned into scrap.
It turns out these aircraft are real lemons. They flew only 234 of the target 4,500 hours in 2012 before being shelved. The SIGAR Office of Special Projects is reviewing this debacle to ensure that the U.S. government does not continue to repeat mistakes like this one.
Conclusion
So there you have it – a quick tour, from soup to nuts, of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. We’re one of the smallest agencies in the federal government, but one of the scrappiest. We are there for the American taxpayer, working under difficult and often dangerous conditions.
While we are only 200 strong, we make up for that with an agility and nimbleness of a small agency with just one mission --to find fraud, waste or abuse and save taxpayers some money in the $100 billion we have spent on reconstruction in Afghanistan.
That is the sole purpose for our existence and when the reconstruction ends in Afghanistan, we go out of existence – that is also one of the unique things about our agency – we are temporary and accordingly we have extraordinary powers for hiring and paying to get the best talent that is necessary.
Now many people think that when the troops pull out at the end of the year, reconstruction ends. Actually it does not. Reconstruction support from the United States actually grows in importance, and the amount the United States has promised to support the training and support for the Afghan government is planned to continue for years to come.
In conclusion, we’re proud of our work and we take it very seriously. But we know that we can’t go it alone. We need your help. There’s just 200 of us, and nearly 700,000 sworn law-enforcement officers in the United States – working every day in their communities.
Many of you and your officers and deputies and detectives are currently in the Guard or Reserve or were formerly in the military. Many of you have served your country in Afghanistan, and have seen things or may have information that could help us fight fraud, waste and abuse of U.S. taxpayer funds. You also know people who are or were in Afghanistan who may have information that could help us.
My hope here today is that we can build on the relationships we’ve already forged, and create new ones – especially with your brave colleagues who have served their nation, and who can help fight crimes against the United States and our reconstruction effort.
It’s important for so many reasons, including the fact that every dollar that’s stolen in Afghanistan is a dollar that can’t be used to fight crime here at home…can’t go to pay for police cars and radios and crime labs…can’t be used to help keep your communities safe or to help the victims of crime.
We’re all working toward the same basic objective – fighting the bad guys – here and abroad -- and doing the right thing for the citizens of this great nation. So the next time one of your colleagues says the “SIGAR” is here, don’t look for a light, look for an opportunity to once again help your nation in its war on terrorism.
Thank you again for allowing me the honor of speaking to you today. I’m happy to take your questions…