AFOSI helps bring indictment against businessman

  • Published
WASHINGTON --  A case jointly investigated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service led to a South Korean businessman's indictment for his alleged role in a bribery conspiracy for a $206 million telecommunications contract involving employees of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. An indictment is merely an allegation, and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Gi-Hwan Jeong was charged in the Northern District of Texas with conspiracy, honest services wire fraud and bribery. According to the indictment, AAFES provides goods and services worth billions of dollars to U.S. servicemembers and their families around the world. The indictment alleges that between 2001 and 2006 Jeong conspired with two AAFES officials and others to commit bribery and honest services wire fraud when he agreed to make payments to the officials in the form of cash, travel and entertainment expenses in exchange for their aid in securing and maintaining a $206 million telecommunications contract for his company, Samsung Rental Ltd.

Henry Lee Holloway, identified as co-conspirator and recipient of bribes in Jeong's indictment, pleaded guilty in the Middle District of Georgia for his role in the conspiracy and for not reporting the bribes he admitted he accepted on his income tax returns. Holloway worked as an AAFES general store manager at the Central Exchange in the Republic of South Korea from 2003 through 2007. According to court documents, prior to Jeong's alleged payments to Holloway, and as a result of SSRT's failures to perform under the contractual relationship with AAFES, Holloway attempted to terminate the contractual relationship between AAFES and SSRT. After Jeong allegedly began making payments to Holloway, and as the result of those payments, Holloway admitted he used official acts and influence to support and expand that contractual relationship, including contract amendments and obligation changes.