Lejeune Marine pleads guilty to seeking bribes
A Camp Lejeune Marine pleaded guilty Tuesday to soliciting bribes from defense contractors while deployed in Iraq, authorities said.
Posted — UpdatedGunnery Sgt. Julio Arreola, 36, pleaded guilty to demanding and seeking a bribe. He is expected to be sentenced in May, when he faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Arreola was assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Forces Headquarters Group, Engineer Company, at Camp Fallujah in Iraq, where he supervised construction projects. According to federal authorities, he solicited a bribe from Davut Construction and Services Co. sometime around June 2008, telling company officials that he would recommend the military buy goods from Davut in exchange for a kickback.
He told the company to inflate the prices it charged the Defense Department and give him the difference in cash, authorities said.
"It is disheartening when a military member abandons his code of conduct and violates a position of trust for personal enrichment," John Khin, special agent-in-charge of the Southeast Field Office of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, said in a statement.
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