WASHINGTON - The US Army is investigating the killing in Iraq of a contractor who, according to his father, suspected that colleagues in his US-based company were involved in fraudulent activities with US Army contracting officers.

Kirk von Ackermann disappeared on a road between Tikrit and Kirkuk, leaving cash in his car. Photo courtesy of Half Moon Bay Review

The murder of Ryan Manelick, 31, came two months after another Ultra Services employee, Kirk von Ackermann, 37, disappeared while driving alone in northern Iraq in 2003, Time magazine said.

The Army launched a fraud investigation in connection with the mysterious disappearance and subsequent killing, Time said, citing Defense Department officials.

Manelick and an Iraqi traveling with him by car were shot and killed by gunmen in a sport-utility vehicle.

Manelick's father claims that his son had told him in an e-mail that he suspected colleagues at Ultra Services were involved in fraudulent activities with US Army contracting officers, according to Time.

The Winters, California-based company's website says it has done 14 million dollars worth of business with the Pentagon, Time said.

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command told Time that Manelick met with its investigators in Iraq, but it refused to say what was discussed.

But an Army investigator, in an e-mail obtained by the magazine, said Manelick visited her days before he was killed and said he was "fearful for his life."

On October 9, 2003, two months before Manelick's killing, Von Ackermann disappeared after a flat tired forced him to pull off the road.

Von Ackermann called Ultra Services' Kirkuk office for help, but a colleague who arrived at the scene did not find him. No blood stains nor bullet holes were in the vehicle, but inside were his computer, satellite phone and a briefcase filled with 40,000 dollars in cash.

Time said Ultra Services executives could not be reached for comment.

The investigative command turned the cases over to its Major Procurement Fraud Unit because it suspects that the disappearance and murder were not acts of random violence, the magazine said.

© 2005 AFP

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