A Georgia man pleaded guilty to taking bribes as a government contractor in Afghanistan, after which he funneled reconstruction contracts to Afghan companies and falsified letters of recommendation for translators’ visa applications, the Justice Department announced.
In concert with an unnamed employee of an American company that evaluated bids for U.S. reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, Orlando Clark took around $400,000 in bribes from an Afghan company in 2011 and 2012.
The Afghan company then received contracts worth millions of dollars.
As part of the scheme, Clark created fake companies and associated bank accounts in Georgia in order to process the bribe payments. Clark made it appear as though he was running a car-export business; in reality, he spent the money on personal expenses, including two BMWs.
Between 2015 and 2020, Clark again took bribes from Afghans in order to game U.S. government programs and efforts in the occupied country, writing false letters of recommendation for visas for Afghan translators.
Clark signed over 10 such letters, claiming without substantiation to have supervised the translators and certifying without any basis that he had no reason to think them threats to American national security.
Clark faces a maximum sentence of up to five years for both the charge of conspiracy to bribe a public official and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. He will be sentenced on April 12.
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