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Top McCain fundraiser accused of ‘war profiteering.’

International Oil Trading Company, which ships oil into Iraq for use by U.S. forces, “appears to have engaged in a reprehensible form of war profiteering,” according to the House Oversight Committee. The company is run by Florida businessman Harry Sargeant, who has raised at least $500,000 for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). From Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates:

[T]he prices IOTC has charged the government are not “fair and reasonable.” A “price negotiation memorandum” assessing the company’s June 2004 contract concluded that the price charged by IOTC, $2.10 per gallon of jet fuel, was at least 36 cents per gallon too high. … Of the $210 million in profits received by the company, at least one third — $70 million — appears to have benefited a single individual: Mr. Sargeant.

Waxman said the company offered the highest price of six bidders, but won the contract “because it was the only one with the blessing of the Jordanian royal family to deliver fuel over Jordanian land.” He added that if the oil contracts that went to Sargeant’s company had been awarded to the lowest bidders, taxpayers could have saved over $180 million.

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