FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Former U.S. Army Reserve Captain Pleads Guilty in Nevada to Bribery Scheme
A former U.S. Army Reserve captain pleaded guilty today to accepting more than $90,000 in bribes from contractors while he was deployed to Iraq, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada.
Edward William Knotts III, 51, of Gibbon, Neb., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James Mahan in the District of Nevada to a criminal information charging him with one count of bribery. He faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 8, 2013.
According to court documents, from December 2005 until December 2007, Knotts was stationed at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, as a contracting officer’s representative for contracts between the U.S. Army and local contractors to provide services to support the operations at Camp Buehring and another U.S. camp in Kuwait.
In November 2006, Knotts entered into an agreement with a Kuwait-based corporation to receive a monthly fee from the corporation in return for providing confidential bidding information about U.S. Army contracts. Between November 2006 and November 2007, the corporation paid him approximately $31,500 in cash. In June 2007, a representative of the corporation paid Knotts $40,000 at a hotel room in Las Vegas in return for his promise to provide confidential bid information and in anticipation of the corporation hiring him. Knotts received another similar cash payment of $20,000 in August 2008 in a different Las Vegas hotel.
This case was investigated by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. The case is being prosecuted by Director of Procurement Fraud Litigation Catherine Votaw and Trial Attorney Brian Young of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
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