MEMPHIS, TENN. – Earlier today at the federal courthouse in Memphis, Tennessee, a former First Sergeant with the U.S. Army was sentenced on his guilty plea to conspiracy to launder approximately $250,000 in bribe payments he received from Afghan contractors in Afghanistan.
United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee Edward L. Stanton III, Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee William C. Killian made the announcement. Jimmy W. Dennis, 44, of Olive Branch, Mississippi, and a former First Sergeant with the U.S. Army, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Samuel H. Mays, Jr., to 41 months and was ordered to forfeit $115,000.
“Instead of serving his country, Jimmy Dennis betrayed it by accepting bribes and selfishly lining his pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Stanton.
“Today’s sentence should serve as a constant reminder that we and our law enforcement partners will not tolerate corruption of any kind and are determined to hold corrupt officials accountable.”
According to court filings, from March 2008 through March 2009, Dennis was an Army Sergeant assigned as a paying agent in the Humanitarian Aid Yard at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. Dennis was part of the team in the HA Yard that purchased supplies from local Afghan vendors for distribution as part of the Commander’s Emergency Response Program for urgent humanitarian relief requirements in Afghanistan. Dennis helped steer contracts to certain Afghan vendors in return for about $250,000 in cash bribes.
Further, according to court pleadings, Dennis smuggled the bribe money back to the U.S. hidden in packages addressed to his wife, his father, Jerry W. Dennis, and a former Army friend, James C. Pittman. Dennis sent about $80,000 to $100,000 to his father from Afghanistan in
packages that contained toy “Jingle Trucks” (colorfully decorated trucks or buses used in Afghanistan and Pakistan). Dennis hid the money in the rear compartment of the trucks. Dennis also shipped a “Hope Chest” to his father, with about $100,000 in cash in a concealed
compartment.
BACKGROUND STORY
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Two former Army soldiers have pleaded guilty to accepting about $250,000 in bribes from contractors in Afghanistan and shipping the cash back to the United States to be laundered through a landscaping business.
Former 1st Sgt. Jimmy W. Dennis, 44, of Clarksville, and 45-year-old James C. Pittman, of Rossville, Georgia, told judges during separate hearings that they took the money in exchange for steering work to favored Afghan contractors. They face up to 20 years in prison when they are sentenced in September.
The guilty pleas are the latest cases to arise from bribery allegations involving U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. At least six other soldiers have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison, including four in Colorado and two from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Dennis and Pittman were also stationed at Fort Campbell. Dennis was assigned to the Humanitarian Aid Yard at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan from March 2008 through March 2009. He said he mailed packages of $80,000 to $100,000 in toy trucks and a chest to a family member in Mississippi. It was then sent to Pittman, a one-time Army friend who laundered it through his landscaping company in Tennessee.
Pittman told a judge in Chattanooga on May 15 he would cut payroll checks with the funds.
The family member in Mississippi is listed only as co-conspirator No. 1 in court documents and has not been charged.
As part of a plea agreement, Dennis will forfeit $250,000, two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and a sport utility vehicle. Pittman will give up nearly $90,000 in cash.
Dennis served 20 years in the Army before being discharged in 2010. Court records list Pittman as a former soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, but do not give any details about his military service.
Dennis is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 4. Pittman’s hearing is set for Sept. 8
