U.S. Expands Probe of Boeing Deal

The Justice Department has begun reviewing e-mail exchanges of three high-ranking government officials in what could represent more fallout from the controversial $23-billion Air Force plan to acquire aerial refueling tankers from Boeing Co., sources said Tuesday.

Federal investigators are looking at the possibility of conflict-of-interest violations by Air Force Secretary James Roche, Air Force acquisition chief Marvin Sambur and Robin Cleveland, associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, sources said.

The review is the latest in a widening scrutiny of the scandal-plagued tanker deal, which has led to the conviction of former Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun.

Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison last week after making a surprise admission that she favored Boeing on several major Air Force contracts including the tanker deal because the company gave her family jobs. Shortly after negotiating the tanker contract in 2002, Druyun obtained a $250,000-a-year job from Boeing.

Druyun agreed to cooperate with federal investigators who also are scrutinizing Boeing executives and Pentagon officials involved in the tanker pact.

Sources familiar with the inquiry said investigators were reviewing 113 tanker-related e-mails written by Sambur, who was Druyun’s boss. E-mails that were made public last year showed Sambur playing a key role in the tanker negotiations.

The review follows a request by Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolton last month for the Justice Department to investigate the possibility of conflicts of interest raised by e-mail exchanges between Roche and Cleveland.

Senate staffers reviewing the tanker deal uncovered e-mail exchanges in which Roche contacted his former employer, Northrop Grumman Corp., recommending that the company hire Cleveland’s brother.

Northrop did not hire him, but the e-mail exchange has raised questions of whether the recommendation was made in return for a favorable review. An Office of Management and Budget report initially criticized the tanker deal but then was revised.

The Roche-Cleveland e-mail exchange was first reported by Washington-based CongressDaily last month.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a chief critic of the tanker deal, Tuesday dismissed the Pentagon’s assertions that the misconduct was limited to Druyun.

“What kind of system do they have over at the Pentagon where one person can rip off the taxpayers of billions of dollars and nobody else is responsible?” he asked. “Either more people are involved or there is something terribly wrong with their system of accountability.”

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Reuters was used in compiling this report.