Iraq contractor, an ex-colonel, sentenced for smuggling $50,000 in cash, lied to customs

By Maryclaire Dale
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:27 a.m. September 17, 2007

PHILADELPHIA – A retired Army colonel was sentenced to five months in prison Monday for smuggling nearly $50,000 in cash that he said he made from Iraqi subcontractors working on rebuilding contracts.

Robert Grove, 63, hid stacks of $100 bills on his body and in his luggage, and lied to customs officials who questioned him as he arrived at Philadelphia International Airport in March, prosecutors said.

Grove, who says he won a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, was working as a military contractor in Iraq. He initially told customs officials that he had won the hidden cash in a high-stakes poker game, but later admitted that it came from Iraqi subcontractors.

Grove made the money moonlighting, helping subcontractors prepare marketing brochures, according to his attorney, Mark Cedrone. He had buried the cash in a Baghdad yard for months.

Prosecutors suggested that such cash payments make it impossible for U.S. officials to maintain “the integrity of the contracting process and protect U.S. taxpayer funds.”

In addition to the prison time, Chief U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III also ordered Grove to spend five months in home confinement and pay a $30,000 fine. Grove also had agreed to forfeit the money and pay taxes on it.

Grove had faced a prison term of up to 16 months under federal sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors say the smuggling case appears to be an isolated one, in terms of people returning from Iraq.

“No one can remember the last time we charged this offense,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pease said.

Ellie