A former captain in the U.S. Army Reserve stationed in Afghanistan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for soliciting $1.3 million in bribes from contractors involved in U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts, as well as participating in a conspiracy to traffic heroin.
Sidharth Handa was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga in Virgina, and he was ordered to pay $315,000 in restitution. Handa pleaded guilty on June 21 to soliciting and accepting the bribes, and to conspiring to deal a kilogram of heroin.
“This case is the largest bribery prosecution to date from our mission in Afghanistan,” said Neil H. MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a statement. “From the day he stepped foot in Afghanistan, Handa negotiated a staggering amount of bribes from contractors in a blatant breach of the trust our military put in him.”
Handa admitted in his plea that almost immediately upon his arrival to Afghanistan, he began soliciting bribes from contractors seeking to get deals with the Kunar Province Reconstruction Team, for which he served as a liaison to the local governor. With the help of an Afghan interpreter, he typically solicited bribes of 10% of a contract’s value, the Justice Department said.
