GEORGIA
A Georgia man pleaded guilty Wednesday for his roles in two bribery conspiracies — one related to U.S. government reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan and one related to a U.S. Department of State visa fraud scheme.
According to court documents, Orlando Clark, 57, of Smyrna, managed reconstruction projects in Afghanistan on behalf of a U.S. company.
Clark pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 12. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each charge, according to officials.
In 2011 and 2012, Clark conspired with an analyst at a different U.S. company, who evaluated bids for U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts awarded by the U.S. military, to receive approximately $400,000 in bribes from an Afghan company in return for assisting it in obtaining millions of dollars in contracts.
To conceal his criminal conduct, Clark registered fictitious companies and bank accounts in Georgia – to which he sent bribe payments via wire transfers from Afghanistan – and created invoices to make it appear as though he was involved in a car-exporting business.
In reality, Clark used the bribe payments funneled through these accounts to enrich himself and purchase personal items, including two BMWs.
In addition, between 2015 and 2020, Clark also received bribes to sign false letters of recommendation for visas authorized for Afghan nationals who worked as translators with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Clark signed over 10 letters in which he falsely claimed to have supervised the applicants and stated, without any factual basis, that he had no reason to believe that they posed a threat to U.S. national security, officials stated.
Trial Attorney Matt Kahn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Phillips for the Northern District of Georgia are prosecuting the case.