Charges Against Two SIGIR Employees Dropped

By Ken Silverstein

More than a year ago I reported on an ongoing investigation into two top employees at the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), Stuart Bowen Jr. and Ginger Cruz. The most serious charges being investigated included allegations of misspending of SIGIR money and financial irregularities. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the “government has cleared the top U.S. watchdog of Iraq reconstruction projects and his deputy of fraud and abuse allegations lodged by former employees.”

On July 3, federal prosecutors alerted the office of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen that a grand jury declined to indict him or deputy Ginger Cruz. Last week, on July 9, the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency similarly cleared him and Cruz of any administrative charges stemming from the accusations. The executive branch council was created to investigate allegations of misconduct by inspectors general at federal agencies…”I always had faith that we’d be cleared of the allegations,” Cruz said in an interview Wednesday. “We knew there was no basis to them.”