[JURIST] Former Eagle Global Logistics (EGL) [corporate website] executive Kevin Andre Smoot pleaded guilty Friday in US District Court to making a false statement and violating the Anti-Kickback Act [text]. Last year, EGL, a Houston-based company hired by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) to ship military cargo to Iraq, paid the government $4 million [press release; JURIST report] to settle potential claims under the False Claims Act [text] that it inflated invoices for Iraq military cargo shipments. EGL was accused of charging a "war risk surcharge" on military shipments from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Iraq between November 2003 and July 2004.

In February 2006, Christopher Joseph Cahill, another former EGL executive, pleaded guilty to inflating the invoices by more than $1 million in a bid to cover the surcharges earlier that year. Smoot, the managing director of EGL's freight-forwarding station in Houston, faces up to 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. AP has more.