Tycoon sold fake bomb detectors to Iraq from 2008-2010, some still in use at checkpoints, sr. Iraqi officials knew were bogus but took bribes, used them anyway. Tycoon crook recently bought Nicholas Cage mansion-BBC

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"The investigation revealed that senior Iraqi officials knew the devices did not work and received bribes to ensure they were purchased."...

4/23/13, "James McCormick guilty of selling fake bomb detectors," BBC

"A millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors to countries including Iraq and Georgia, knowing they did not work, has been convicted of fraud.

James McCormick, 56, of Langport, Somerset, is said to have made £50m from sales and sold over 6,000 to Iraq.

The devices, which sold for up to $40,000 (£27,000), were based on a novelty golf ball finder and supposed to detect explosives, people and drugs....

Iraq spent more than $40m (£26.2m) on 6,000 devices between 2008 and 2010.

Haneen Alwan needed 59 operations after she was injured in a bomb blast in January 2009. She was two months pregnant at the time and lost her child.

"When people passed through checkpoints using these devices, they thought they would be safe, but they are useless. The man who sold them has no conscience. He is morally bankrupt. How could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?" she told a BBC Newsnight investigation into the case.

A senior Iraqi official told the BBC that the useless devices had created a false sense of security - and that no punishment would make up for the blood that had been shed as a result.

The Newsnight programme conducted an investigation into the devices sold by McCormick's company, resulting in a UK government ban on their sale in Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2010.

The investigation revealed that senior Iraqi officials knew the devices did not work and received bribes to ensure they were purchased.

General Jihad al-Jabiri, the head of the Baghdad bomb squad, is currently serving a jail term for corruption, along with two other Iraqi officials.

The Inspector General of the Iraqi interior ministry, Aqil al-Turehi, is conducting an investigation which revealed that a vehicle carrying rockets and missiles passed undetected through 23 checkpoints using the device.

"The devices were used at numerous checkpoints within Iraq during this period. It is clear that both civilians and armed forces personnel were put at significant risk in relying upon this equipment," said Det Insp Ed Heath of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the deputy senior investigating officer....

"That device has been used and is still being used on checkpoints. People using that device believe it works. It does not."...

The 56-year-old currently owns houses in Florida and Cyprus, as well as a yacht, and recently bought film star Nicholas Cage's mansion in Bath.

McCormick was remanded on conditional bail and will be sentenced on 2 May."


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