Million Dollar Screw
Not the real screw or washer – just for effect
No, this is not another story on
Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers (Update3)
By Tony Capaccio
Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A small
The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in
The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina -- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled ``priority'' were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.
C&D and two of its officials were barred in December from receiving federal contracts. Today, a federal judge in
…``C&D was a rogue contractor,'' Stroot said. While other questionable billing has been uncovered, nothing came close to C&D's, she said. The next-highest billing for questionable costs totaled $2 million, she said.
Stroot said the Pentagon hopes to recoup most of the $20.5 million by auctioning homes, beach property, jewelry and ``high- end automobiles'' that the sisters spent the money on.
``They took a lot of vacations,'' she said.