US soldier charged in NY with taking bribe in Iraq

NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters) A US Army captain was charged with accepting a 50,000 dollars bribe to steer military contracts in Iraq, prosecutors said.

Austin Key, 27, of Watertown, N Y, was stationed in Baghdad as a field ordering officer and oversaw the administration of service and supply contracts awarded by the US Army worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors accuse Key of demanding 125,000 dollars from the owner of a business in order to protect the company's ability to win future contracts.

But the unidentified business owner contacted law enforcement authorities and agreed to meet with Key again so that their conversation could be recorded.

''During a subsequent meeting on August 11, 2007, Key told the (business owner) that in exchange for 50,000 dollars, he would give the (business owner) advance, confidential information on contracts so that he would be more successful in bidding on US Army contracts,'' prosecutors said.

In addition to that, Key -- who was brought back to the United States on Wednesday -- is accused of demanding 5 per cent of any contracts he steered to the company.

He was ordered released yesterday in Manhattan federal court on 500,000 dollars bail. If convicted Key faces a maximum 15 years in prison for one count of bribery.

In a separate case, a Texas grand jury on Wednesday indicted Army Maj John Cockerham, his wife, Melissa, and his sister Carolyn Blake, in a suspected scheme to accept millions of dollars in bribes for Defense Department contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.

REUTERS AK BST0556