Soldiers were selling the U.S. military’s fuel to Afghan locals on the side, and pocketing the proceeds. When Hightower suggested they start doing the same, Charboneau said, she agreed.
In so doing, Charboneau contributed to thefts by U.S. military personnel of at least $15 million worth of fuel since the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. And eventually she became one of at least 115 enlisted personnel and military officers convicted since 2005 of committing theft, bribery, and contract rigging crimes valued at $52 million during their deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a comprehensive tally of court records by the Center for Public Integrity.
Many of these crimes grew out of shortcomings in the military’s management of the deployments that experts say are still present: A heavy dependence on cash transactions, a hasty award process for high-value contracts, loose and harried oversight within the ranks, and a regional culture of corruption that proved seductive to the American troops transplanted there.
[Related]: http://www.militarycorruption.com/nguyen.htm
[Also Covered By]: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/05/u_s_troops_have_stolen_tens_of_millions_in_iraq_and_afghanistan_center_for.single.html
Of course, stealing from the military is not strictly limited to overseas. It wasn't that long ago that a single guy was convicted of the largest domestic kickback and bribery scheme at a cool $32.5Million
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday May 07 2015, @01:56PM
Remember Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22? Same idea, different war. That sort of corruption is completely normal, at all levels of the hierarchy, because in times of war proper accounting goes out the window quite quickly, and lack of proper accounting means opportunity for graft. They don't even really know where their people are a lot of the time.
The notion that there is anything remotely orderly about an army comes from people who have never been in an army.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.