SAN DIEGO (AP) A former Marine has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for accepting $150,000 from military contractors while he was deployed in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced former Staff Sgt. Gilbert Mendez on Friday in federal court in San Diego.
Mendez pleaded guilty on Dec. 6, 2012, to conspiring to defraud the United States by accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from defense contractors.
The foreign contractors received millions of dollars in military contracts at Camp Fallujah, Iraq.
Mendez also must pay $150,000 in restitution to the Defense Department.