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Express-NewsFederal authorities on Monday arrested an Army major stationed at Fort Sam Houston on charges that he took almost $10 million in bribes and expected $5.4 million more on military contracts he had rigged.
A handful of agencies, including investigative arms of the Justice and Defense departments, arrested Maj. John Cockerham, 41, and his wife, Melissa, 40, in the pre-dawn hours Monday as the couple returned to Fort Sam Houston from Louisiana.
They appeared later in federal court in San Antonio, where a judge ordered them held without bail pending a bond hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Melissa Cockerham is accused of helping her husband receive and hide some of the bribe payoffs. The two are charged with accepting bribes, defrauding the United States, money laundering and conspiracy.
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The payoffs included hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stuffed in briefcases and bags that were accepted by Melissa Cockerham and others for John Cockerham, the affidavits said. Much of the graft occurred in 2005 and was deposited in banks in the Middle East and much of it appears to have been moved to offshore banks in the Caribbean, according to the affidavits.
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