The complaint, filed April 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that a Virginia-based defense contractor and others ran a corrupt scheme from 2016 through 2020 to extract more than $700 million from the Defense Logistics Agency for jet fuel deliveries to U.S. military forces during Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
At the center of the alleged scheme is Erbil International Airport in Kurdistan, a critical fuel delivery point for U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, where Kurdish Peshmerga forces provided internal security and controlled entry to the facility. The complaint alleges that the contractor's officers agreed to pay General Mansour Barzani, a senior Peshmerga official, a bribe of $0.25 per liter in exchange for exclusive access to deliver jet fuel there. Competitors were blocked from accessing the airport for DLA deliveries, and DLA issued one-time-buy contracts to the contractor often at noncompetitive and greatly inflated prices.
The complaint further alleges that DLA funds received through the scheme were transferred to NYJD Trust No. 1, a Virginia trust established for Barzani's private benefit. In 2018, approximately $30 million from that trust was used to purchase the Beverly Hills mansion and to fund renovation and improvement of the property from 2019 to 2022.
The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation. Deputy Chief Michael B. Redmann and Senior Trial Attorney Steven Parker of the Criminal Division's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section are handling the matter, with support from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California and the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs.
The government bears the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that the assets are subject to forfeiture.