Former Iowa Air Force Captain Charged with Violating Conflict of Interest Laws

Adam, J.J. Pudenz, 33, from Carroll, Iowa, has been charged by a criminal complaint, filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Iowa, with violating federal conflict of interest laws. The complaint was unsealed yesterday following Pudenz’s arrest without incident in Carroll, Iowa.

The complaint alleges that during about 2011, Pudenz knowingly and wilfully engaged in unlawful representational activities. The affidavit supporting the complaint alleges that Pudenz, while a captain in the United States Air Force, served as a contracting officer for the military in Kabul, Afghanistan. Further, after Pudenz separated from the military in about February 2011, he was employed by a company with whom he had previously done business as a military contracting officer. The affidavit alleges Pudenz was paid more than $250,000 by the company for services that included representation of the company with the military on the same contracts Pudenz had administered while in the military.

Pudenz appeared in federal court in Sioux City on the afternoon of August 21, 2013, and was released on conditions of bond, including the condition that he surrender his passport and restrict his travel. Pudenz’s next court appearance, for a preliminary hearing, is set for September 11, 2013.

As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Richard L. Murphy and Trial Attorney Wade Weems from the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The case has been investigated by the FBI, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, and by the Defense Criminal Investigative Agency.