Iraqi reconstruction ... Hot tubs and Cadillacs in Trenton New Jersey

Flogging the Simian, ( which is I think synonymous with Bashing the Bisop) has an excellent Roumanian based site he appears to be an expat US journalist with several languages at his command and writes a wise, witty and razor sharp blog.

I am grateful to him for more information from Roumanian newspapers about Robert Stein and the Roumanian / US snake oil salesman Mr Bloom who ripped off the Coalition Provisional Authority and thereby the hapless US tax payer.

The Bucharest Daily News has a little bit more information on who Bloom is:
Bloom is known for his close ties with Romanian authorities over the last 15 years. Since 1990, he has been involved as a consultant on several privatization and financing projects for the Romanian government. He is also an associate of the former Romanian Bank for Development president Bogdan Baltazar in the consultancy group "Baltazar, Bloom & Parvulescu."

Romanian newspaper Gindul has more (translation by the Simian) in an article from November 2005:

Wednesday, a court in Washington, DC issued charges against Bloom of conspiracy, fraud, attempt to money launder and the transport of stolen goods, connected to his actions to obtain contractions worth 3.5 million dollars in Iraq for 3 of his companies. The American [Bloom], a long-time resident of Romania, was recently arrested in America and is in federal custody. The case is especially delicate for the American authorities because some of his bribes were to an official of the Defense Department and one was to a financial inspector of the CPA [Stein]. One of the two accomplices of Bloom's could cooperate with prosecutors in the case.

According to the New York Times, Bloom bid on many offers for contracts issued by the CPA, all of them through his companies or through shell companies and his accomplices inside the CPA were the ones who decided to award the contracts. In exchange for his efforts, CPA officials and even their wives received money (transferred from banks in Romania, Kuwait, the Netherlands and Switzerland) or jewelry. In other occasions, he bribed them with real estate in North Carolina or automobiles. The Iraqis themselves had no say in any of these dirty deals. Although Bloom's companies won the contracts to rebuild a public library, a police academy and other buildings in Al Hillah and Karbala, an American Department of Justice report shows that he had done no work as of this summer [2005].(…and his being in chokey won’t help the work along we can assume)

Romanian Government Was Advised By Bloom

The briber Philip Herbert Bloom was a consultant to the Romanian government in many privatization cases starting in 1993-1994. One of his companies, Global Business Group, participated in the privatization of Astra Vagoane Arad and the Phoenix of Baia Mare as well as mediating financing for TAROM [Romanian state-owned airlines] when the airline bought 5 Boeing 737-300 aircraft.

Aligned with Bogdan Baltazar, the former president of BRD [Romanian state-owned bank], (Biog here )
Bloom was a stockholder in the consultancy firm "Baltazar, Bloom and Pirvulescu". Baltazar yesterday admitted to Mediafax that his business partner had been arrested in the United States but stated that his [Baltazar's] firm had "no connection whatsoever with Bloom's activities in Iraq". What is interesting is that the company Global Business Group, which describes itself as a "consultancy firm for investments and privatization in Romania" is similarly named to Global Business Group Logistics, which Baltazar admitted did business in Iraq.

Until he is found guilty in a court, Baltazar considers Bloom innocent. "I don't believe he did anything illegal in Iraq. What I think is that he angered some people because his business deals were successful, and the big American firms over there did not want any competition from an outsider" said Baltazar.

Bowen is reported as saying there are 57 other similiar cases heres one of them associated with Stein and Bloom.
A Corp Watch story 15th December 2005 claims that Debrah Harrison who worked in Trenton, New Jersey's water department served as a reservist in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, assigned to Coalition Provisional Authority office in Hillah that awarded reconstruction contracts. Arrested at the same time were second Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, Michael Brian Wheeler of Amherst Junction, Wis., and a former occupation official, Robert J. Stein Jr., 50, of Fayetteville, N.C., .

Harrison allegedly stole $80,000 to $100,000 from the CPA to add a deck and hot tub to her home in New Jersey, according to the complaint.

In 2004, she acquired a Cadillac Escalade, (which goes with the hot tub I guess) worth $50,000 to $60,000, after money was wired from accounts controlled or used by Bloom directly to a dealership, the complaint said.