Man convicted in Pentagon ammunition fraud case

TIRANA, Dec. 20 – A federal jury in Florida has convicted a man of fraud conspiracy in a scheme to illegally ship Chinese-made ammunition to Afghan forces under a $300 million military contract.
Jurors in Miami last week on Friday convicted Ralph Merrill of 33 charges including wire fraud conspiracy and making false statements. Jurors acquitted Merrill of 16 other counts. Sentencing was set for March.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say Merrill was part of a scheme by Miami Beach-based AEY Inc. to ship the Chinese ammunition to Afghan military and police in violation of U.S. law. The ammo was repackaged to make it appear Albania was the source.
Three other men have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, including AEY President Efraim Diveroli.
This is the fourth person to be convicted in the U.S. as a result of the fraudulent AEY arms deal with the Albanian government which was exposed on the front page of The New York Times on March 27, 2010.
Evdin, a Cyprus-based ghost company run by an arms dealer, was inserted into the deal as an intermediary between AEY and the Albanian government only adds to the long list of suspicions surrounding this case.
The names of those Albanians alleged to have had their hands in this deal are no secret in Albania as 28 people of the army, Defense Ministry and a private company are in trial. After a failed attempt to include former minister Fatmir Mediu in the case, the victims’ families insist he is one of the people to blame. Mediu was first in the trial but removed after he regained the immunity after elections last year. He is now environment minister.
The case started after the March 15, 2008 blast at the Gerdec ammunition disposal factory, operated by Milhal Deligjorji’s company that had a deal with AEY. Twenty-six people died and 300 injured, including ddestructi0n or damage to thousands of houses and other buildings.