Federal judge declares mistrial after jurors unable to reach decision in Rock Island case

A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a former government-contractor employee accused of taking a $1 million kickback in an alleged conspiracy with a Kuwaiti businessman to defraud the U.S. military.

Jurors said they were deadlocked after three days of deliberations and could not reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of Jeff Alex Mazon.

Mazon, 39, is charged with four counts of major fraud and six counts of wire fraud. Attorneys are to meet next week to schedule a new trial.

Prosecutors said Mazon, of Country Club Hills near Chicago, conspired to inflate a military contract by $4.8 million and got $1 million as a reward for inflating the subcontract for Ali Hijazi's company. The $5.5 million contract was for fuel services at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

The defense has said Mazon was overworked while employed at former Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc. and made an honest mistake while converting Kuwaiti currency to U.S. dollars.

Hijazi faces similar charges, although he lives in Kuwait and has not been taken into custody.

The indictment came from a federal grand jury in Illinois because the Army Field Support Command at the Rock Island Arsenal oversees the military contract that included the tanker deal.