American admits $40M Iraq fuel theft

A former U.S. Army officer turned Defense Department contractor has admitted stealing nearly $40 million in fuel from the Army in Iraq, prosecutors said.

Lee William Dubois, 32, of Lexington, S.C., entered his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors said Dubois, who had been an Army captain until July 2007, spent the next several months, ending in May 2008, using fraudulently obtained documents to steal about 10 million gallons of aviation and diesel fuel worth about $39.6 million from a bulk facility at Camp Liberty.

Dubois admitted he and his co-conspirators employed about 10 individuals as drivers and escorts of the trucks containing the stolen fuel, which was then sold on the black market. His take on the illicit sales was abut $450,000, prosecutors said.

Dubois faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.