A 25-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to bribery for selling thousands of gallons of jet fuel to a military contractor in Afghanistan.
Larry Emmons, an Army specialist assigned to A Company, 325th Brigade Support Battalion, faces a maximum 15-year prison term and $250,000 fine when a U.S. district judge sentences him in October. He must also pay restitution and forfeit $74,830 in cash authorities seized from him in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in February.
As part of his plea deal with the prosecutor, Emmons has agreed to cooperate with the government in the prosecution of others.
Another Schofield Barracks soldier, Reginald O. Dixon, a sergeant also assigned to A Company, is scheduled to plead guilty Wednesday. The government said federal agents seized $37,500 from him in Jalalabad in February and $13,700 he shipped out of the country by FedEx.
Emmons was a petroleum supply specialist at Forward Operating Base Fenty in Jalalabad responsible for loading and transporting jet fuel to other military bases in Afghanistan.
The Army uses jet fuel for its helicopters.
Dixon was a petroleum operator responsible for fueling tanker trucks at FOB Fenty.
The government says Dixon and Emmons’ supervisor, a sergeant first class and truck master for the 325th BSB, cooked up a scheme in December or January to steal JP8 jet fuel from FOB Fenty and sell it to an Afghan military trucking contractor.
They then persuaded Emmons to participate in the scheme when Emmons returned from leave in January.
"I was involved in a fuel theft at that base location," Emmons said in court Friday, "to sell to Afghani local nationals."
None of the documents that charge Emmons and Dixon with bribery names the truck master, who is not yet charged with any crimes.
The scheme involved loading 3,000-gallon-capacity tanker trucks owned by the contractor at times when the activity could go unnoticed, preparing and giving the drivers false documents that allowed the trucks to leave FOB Fenty with the fuel and receiving $6,000 per truckload, the government said.
The scheme went on in January and February and resulted in the theft of at least 135,000 gallons of jet fuel, said federal prosecutor Mark Pletcher.
