Pentagon’s Car Shipment Contract to Be Investigated By Inspector General

This was bound to happen considering how many complaints servicemembers have had about this contractor:

The U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General has opened an investigation of the nearly $1 billion contract to ship servicemembers’ cars overseas.

Investigators will target the Globally Privately Owned Vehicle Contract, or GPC III, under whose auspices International Auto Logistics was chosen by the U.S. Transportation Command, which is based at Illinois’ Scott Air Force Base.

The investigation began when Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., contacted the Defense Contract Management Agency in October to request an audit of the shipping program.

The senators’ request for the audit came after a swelling tide of complaints over the summer from International Auto Logistics customers in Illinois and the rest of the nation. The customers were upset about vehicles shipped home after military tours overseas that were either missing, arriving months later than promised or mysteriously damaged.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but what is most concerning about this contract are the Unification Church and North Korean connections to IAL:

Formed in August 2012 with the sole purpose of pursuing this contract, IAL submitted a bid two months later. IAL’s parent company is International Auto Processing, also in Brunswick, whose chairman is Park Sang-Kwon. Anything but a native Georgian, Park is a global financial figure who was chairman of Pyeonghwa Motors, a joint venture between North and South Korea — a rarity indeed. Billed as “The Bridge between South and North Korea,” the partnership was formed in 1999 between Pyonghwa Motors of South Korea, owned by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, and Ryonbong General Corp. of North Korea.

Though the company’s headquarters was in Seoul, Park enjoyed a close relationship with the North Korean regime. At a time when travel between the Koreas is difficult, Park has visited North Korea 200 times. In late 2012, he was even awarded an honorary citizenship in North Korea, only the second person ever to receive such a commendation. “This means that North Korea has acknowledged the trust they had put in me,” Park told Agence France Presse at the time. “They were also encouraging me to start new projects in the North, more freely and aggressively.”

Throughout its history, Pyeonghwa Motors struggled. In 2012, the joint venture ended when Park and the Unification Church relinquished their interest in the failing enterprise to the North Koreans. One report suggested the company was given to the North Korean regime for the right to conduct future business in the country. At the same time, Park submitted an application to the Ministry of Unification in South Korea to undertake new businesses in the North. It was now — as Park was dealing with this business failure — that his International Auto Processing formed IAL, which ended up with a $300-million defense contract.  [The Hill]

So it is pretty clear that Park set up IAL just to win the Pentagon contract after his failed business venture in North Korea.  So who did Park call on to help him win the contract?  I am sure most ROK Heads could have guessed this:

According to court papers, IAL lists Boyle Transportation, of Billerica, Mass., as a major subcontractor. Boyle’s board of advisers includes three retired generals: Gen. William Tuttle Jr., the former commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, which overseas SDDC; Maj. Gen. Charlie Fletcher, Transcom’s former director of operations and plans, and Maj. Gen. Dan Mongeon, former director of operations for the Defense Logistics Agency.

SDDC is an Army command that’s part of the U.S. Transportation Command, also based at Scott. SDDC supervises the movement of military property. It directly oversees the IAL contract. [Military.com]

You can read much more at the link.