Ex-US official gets 19 years for bribery scheme

A former manager with the US Army Corps of Engineers was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for orchestrating a USD 30 million bribery and kickback scheme that authorities called historic in scope.
US District Judge Emmet Sullivan yesterday called Kerry F. Khan's conduct, which included wiretapped conversations about a planned sexual encounter with a teenage girl and the assault of his mistress by an associate in the Philippines, "shocking, vicious and cruel."
The judge imposed a sentence four years longer than what prosecutors had recommended.
Khan, 55, a resident of the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, pleaded guilty last year to orchestrating the fraud, which prosecutors call the largest domestic bribery and bid-rigging scheme in the history of federal contracting cases.

He acknowledged pocketing bribes from corrupt contractors in exchange for certifying bogus or inflated invoices for services that were never provided. The funds were used to pay for mistresses located in several states and overseas as well as for luxuries including Rolex watches, first-class airplane tickets, expensive clothes and liquor and a spacious home that a prosecutor described as the "Khan Majal," authorities said.