An Army sergeant pleaded guilty on Friday of conspiracy to accept bribes to pilfer fuel at a forward operating base in Afghanistan.
Sheldon Morgan, 36, stationed at Fort Wainwright in Alaska, pleaded guilty to a one-count charge that he participated in bribery and defrauding the U.S. during a deployment in Afghanistan from May 2010 to May 2011. The forward operating base in Afghanistan stored and distributed fuel to neighboring military bases.
As a specialist in the Army, Morgan was responsible for helping to distribute the fuel to the nearby bases. Morgan confessed that he hired a translator who worked for an Afghan trucking company to steal 5,000 gallons of fuel on two occasions. The translator gave Morgan $5,000 per truckload, which he wired to an account opened by Morgan’s wife and in her name, the Justice Department said Friday.
The scheme totaled $37,300, Justice said.
This isn’t the first time a bribery scheme involving fuel has occurred. According to the Department of Justice, it was the eighth incident in which a defendant has pleaded guilty for similar charges after being deployed at the forward operating base between June 2009 and August 2012.
In 2014, a former Army soldier was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for embezzling fuel at the base in Afghanistan. Stephanie Charboneau, also an Army specialist, conspired to steal and sell fuel from February to May 2010, costing the U.S. about $1.3 million.
Morgan’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
