Contractor made millions claiming Army stripes

A private security firm that has been raking in government contracts in Iraq and got $10 million in tax abatements to set up shop in Michigan is headed by a CEO who appears to be lying about his service record, our sister site Michigan Messenger reports.

Sovereign Deed founder Barrett Moore “served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, specializing in issues related to the non-proliferation of biological weapons and related weapons of mass destruction (WMD),” according to the company’s website. But reporter Eartha Jane Melzer found that Moore never completed his college ROTC training and was discharged from an inactive unit of the Reserves having never finished basic training. She writes, “Moore never served as an Army intelligence officer, or in any other branch of the country’s armed forces.”

Also little known is Moore’s track record of lawsuits and a conviction on three counts of criminal fraud in Australia, which resulted in jail time but was later overturned. In a related  trial, Moore admitted he was involved in an ‘illegal enterprise’ to smuggle cars from Chicago to Melbourne and that he fabricated documents.

Writes Melzer: “Why did Moore’s legal problems in Australia, his bankruptcy and his apparent misrepresentation of his military background not surface when it came to gaining millions of dollars in security contracts with the U.S. government?“

Photo: U.S. Army photo by CW4 Daniel McClinton, 1-227th, 1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs via the Soldiers  Media Center on Flickr.