Reuters has stopped distributing the full text of Moody'sInvestors Service press releases on ratings actions, effectiveApril 1, 2009. The text of this Moody's Investor Service ratingis available at Stocks  |  Bonds  |  Global Markets Stocks Bonds Global Markets. U.S. Charges Bolingbrook, Ill., Man With Bribery in Connection With Army Corpsof Engineers Contract in IraqCHICAGO, May 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A Bolingbrook, Ill., man working forthe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq and Afghanistan was arrested Saturdayon federal bribery charges for allegedly soliciting $40,000 from a contractorwho was awarded a $2.5 million project to build city parks in Kirkuk, Iraq,federal law enforcement officials announced today The defendant, Joselito Domingo, appeared Monday in U.S.

District Court inBaltimore, after being taken into custody at Baltimore WashingtonInternational Airport over the weekend upon his return from Bagram Air ForceBase in Afghanistan. Domingo was confronted by law enforcement on April 28 ashe left the Western Union office at Bagram after he allegedly retrieved $4,770that he believed was sent to him by the contractor, who was cooperating withthe FBI and Defense Department agencies throughout the investigation.Domingo, also known as "Joe," 45, was charged with bribery in a criminalcomplaint that was unsealed Monday, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S.Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, SpecialAgent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the FBI.The Government is seeking to have Domingo returned to Chicago in custody toface the charges in U.S. District Court here.The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Army Criminal InvestigationCommand, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI and members ofthe National Procurement Fraud Task Force and the International ContractCorruption Task Force (ICCTF). The National Procurement Fraud Task Force, created in October 2006 by theDepartment of Justice, was designed to promote the early detection,identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associatedwith the increase in government contracting activity for national security andother government programs.

The ICCTF is a joint law enforcement agency taskforce that seeks to detect, investigate and dismantle corruption and contractfraud resulting from U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations, including inAfghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. According to the complaint affidavit, Domingo was employed as a projectengineer, and later resident engineer, for the Corps of Engineers and hadresponsibility for supervising various construction projects in and aroundKirkuk from 2005 to November 2008. These projects, totaling between $50 and$100 million, included oil pipeline barriers, water projects, schools androads, with Domingo reviewing contractor designs, performing evaluations andprocessing progress payments.

Last November, Domingo returned to the UnitedStates for a few months before accepting a position with the Corps ofEngineers earlier this year in Bagram, Afghanistan. In late March, FBI and DoD investigators learned from two individuals thatDomingo allegedly had been seeking $100,000 from the contractor (CW-1) for twocontracts, including the Kirkuk city parks contract, awarded by the Corps in2008. In early April, CW-1 told agents that while CW-1's company was competingfor the city parks contract and a $2 million solid waste transfer station inKirkuk, Domingo solicited a bribe of $50,000 for each contract, for a total of$100,000.Ultimately CW-1 received only the city parks contract and Domingo dropped hisdemand to $50,000, and CW-1 told Domingo in August 2008 that CW-1 could notpay until some of the money was received from the contract. Domingo allegedlyresponded that he understood and CW-1 could pay him after he approved thefirst progress payments. CW-1 said that Domingo repeated demands for moneyusing cellular phone text messages, some of which are detailed in theaffidavit.CW-1 was fearful that CW-1's company would not get paid or might lose thecontract and be "black listed" if the bribe to Domingo was not paid. Yet,because the payment was tied to the first progress payment, CW-1 waited tosubmit any requests for payment on the Kirkuk parks contract until afterDomingo left Iraq in November 2008.