Pentagon Overpaid Billionaire Oil Tycoon by up to $200 million.

A Pentagon audit has revealed that the federal government overpaid a billionaire oilman up to $200 million. The audit found that Harry Sargeant III was overpaid on several military contracts worth nearly $2.7 billion. It also found that three contracts the Florida businessman won were awarded under conditions that effectively eliminated other bidders. It estimated that the department paid the oilman $160 million, to $204 million more for fuel than could be supported by price or cost analysis. Sargeant, once a prominent Republican donor, first faced scrutiny over his defense work in October 2008, when he was accused in a congressional probe of using his close relationship with Jordan's royal family to secure exclusive rights over supply routes to US bases in western Iraq. According to the Washington Post, Republican Henry Waxman who led the probe, asserted in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Sargeant had won three jet fuel contracts , despite having the highest bids, because he had an effective monopoly over the routes. He accused Sargeant and his company of price gouging and 'engaging in the worst form of war profiteering.'