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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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February 12th,
2010 - Former Blackwater Employees Accuse Security Contractor News article from the
Washington Post |
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Former
Blackwater Employees Accuse Security Contractor of Defrauding Government By Carol D. Leonnig & Nick Schwellenbach Washington Post February 12, 2010 This report is a
collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and The Washington
Post. Two former employees of
Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security contractor of
defrauding the government for years through phony billing, including charging
taxpayers for alcohol-filled parties, spa trips and a prostitute. In court records unsealed
this week, a husband and wife who worked for Blackwater said they have firsthand
knowledge of the company falsifying invoices, double-billing federal agencies
and improperly charging the government for personal expenses. They said they
witnessed "systematic" fraud in the company's security contracts
with the State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with the Department of
Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Louisiana
after Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater is the State
Department's largest security contractor, and a State Department spokesman
said Thursday that his agency and the Justice Department reviewed the
allegations in 2008, when the lawsuit was filed under seal in federal court
in Virginia. The spokesman, P.J. Crowley, could not determine what came of
the review. Brad Davis, a former Marine,
served as a Blackwater team leader and security guard, including in Iraq. His
wife, Melan Davis, worked as a finance and payroll employee, starting in
Louisiana. Their lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act, which allows
whistle-blowers to win a portion of any money the government recovers as a
result of the information. However, the Justice Department has chosen not to
join them in pursuing their lawsuit, a decision that led to the suit being
unsealed this week. The company changed its name
to Xe Services LLC last year. Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke said Thursday that
the Davises' allegations are false. "The allegations are without merit
and the company will vigorously defend against this lawsuit," she said.
"It is noteworthy that the government has declined to intervene in this
action." After the attacks of Sept.
11, 2001, Blackwater became the largest of the State Department's private
security contractors. It has since been paid billions of dollars to protect
diplomatic employees in Iraq and Afghanistan and for other agencies' security
missions. The company also became a major source of anti-American sentiment
in Iraq because of repeated deadly shootings involving its guards. Iraq moved to expel
Blackwater after a September 2007 incident in which witnesses told the FBI
that the company's security guards fired guns without provocation into a busy
intersection, killing at least 14 Iraqis. The Justice Department charged six
Blackwater guards in that incident. One pleaded guilty, and a judge dismissed
the charges against the five others in December. In their suit, the Davises
assert that Blackwater officials kept a Filipino prostitute on the company
payroll for a State Department contract in Afghanistan, and billed the
government for her time working for male Blackwater employees in Kabul. The
prostitute's salary was categorized as part of the company's "Morale
Welfare Recreation" expenses, they alleged. Melan Davis said in court
papers that while working in Blackwater's finance department, she questioned
how the company could bill the government for its workers' travel expenses to
and from Iraq when it lacked the documentation for those trips. She said she
later traveled to a hotel in Amman, Jordan, where Blackwater personnel often
stopped en route to Iraq. While there, she said, corporate officers directed
her and two co-workers to generate reams of false invoices for plane travel
at inflated rates, so her Blackwater bosses could overcharge the government. In one instance, the Davises
allege, the company was paying inflated prices to a vendor whose work was
billed to the Department of Homeland Security for services related to
security after Hurricane Katrina. They said the overpayments allowed the
vendor to provide a barbecue pit for Blackwater staff parties. Melan Davis argues that
Blackwater terminated her in February 2008 because she questioned fraudulent
billing. Brad Davis resigned. Schwellenbach works for the
Center for Public Integrity. Staff writer Jerry Markon contributed to this
report. © 2010 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/11/AR2010021100232.html |