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Tag : Special Wire

Debra Harrison, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, pleaded guilty today to honest services wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the Coalition Provisional Authority - South Central Region (CPA-SC) in Al-Hillah, Iraq, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division.

Harrison, 50, of Trenton, N.J., entered her guilty plea today before the Honorable Mary L. Cooper at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Division. At the plea hearing, Harrison admitted that in August 2004 she received a Cadillac Escalade from Philip Bloom, a contractor at the CPA-SC. The Escalade was financed through a series of wire transfer payments, which form the basis of the wire fraud charge. Harrison also admitted that she took more than $300,000 from the CPA-SC while deployed there and that she used some of the stolen money to make improvements at her home. Harrison also admitted that in July 2004 she helped to move unregistered firearms from a hotel in North Carolina to the home of Robert Stein, a co-conspirator who worked with Harrison at the CPA-SC.

Harrison’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19, 2008. Harrison faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a three year term of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

On Jan. 29, 2007, co-conspirator Robert Stein was sentenced to nine years in prison for related charges of conspiracy, bribery and money laundering, as well as weapons possession charges, for his role in the same scheme. Stein was also ordered to forfeit $3.6 million for his role in the bribery and money laundering scheme.