LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A U.S. soldier based at Fort Knox has pleaded guilty to taking $57,000 from an Afghan trucking company as part of a scheme to divert loaded fuel trucks from an American military outpost.
Spc. Albert Kelly III, who appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville, admitted to diverting fuel trucks from Forward Operating Base Salerno near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and logging in more fuel than was actually delivered in exchange for cash.
Kelly faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing in May.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bennett told the court that between November 2011 and January 2012 Kelly helped divert 25,000 gallons of fuel. At $4 gallon (per 3.79 litres), that diversion cost the United States about $100,000, which Kelly will repay in restitution as part of his sentence.
