Sunday, August 22, 2010
To keep from losing its business with the U.S. government, Xe Services (formerly called Blackwater Worldwide) has agreed to pay $42 million in fines to the State Department to settle hundreds of violations of export law. Had the security company not paid the fines, it would have been brought up on criminal charges and banned from receiving new government contracts.
Xe was accused of illegally shipping weapons to Afghanistan, attempting to train troops in Sudan and providing sniper training for police officers in Taiwan, among other transgressions.
The settlement does not affect the company’s other legal troubles, including indictments of five former executives on weapons and obstruction charges, allegations of bribing Iraqi government officials and the pending trial of two former guards accused of murdering two Afghans in 2009.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Blackwater Reaches Deal on U.S. Export Violations (by James Risen, New York Times)
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