WASHINGTON -- The private security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide, long plagued by accusations of impropriety, has reached an agreement with the State Department for the company to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds of violations of U.S. export control regulations.
The violations included illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, making unauthorized proposals to train troops in south Sudan and providing sniper training for Taiwanese police officers, according to company and government officials familiar with the deal.
Blackwater's ambitions in Sudan were described in detail by McClatchy newspapers in June.
The settlement, which has not yet been publicly announced, follows lengthy talks between Blackwater, now called Xe Services, and the State Department that dealt with the violations as an administrative matter, allowing the firm to avoid criminal charges. A spokeswoman for the Moyock, N.C.-based company confirmed Friday that a settlement had been reached. The State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said he could not immediately comment.
The settlement with the State Department does not resolve other legal troubles still facing Blackwater and its former executives and other personnel. Those include:
The indictments of five former executives, including Blackwater's former president, on weapons and obstruction charges.
A federal investigation into evidence that Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government officials.
And the arrest of two former Blackwater guards on federal murder charges stemming from the killing of two Afghans last year.
Preserving contracts
But by paying fines rather than facing criminal charges on the export violations, Blackwater will be able to continue to obtain government contracts.
While the company last year lost its largest federal contract - providing diplomatic security for U.S. Embassy personnel in Baghdad, where the Iraqi government was incensed by killings of Iraqis in one highly publicized case - it still has contracts to provide security for the State Department and the CIA in Afghanistan.
Blackwater, its reputation tainted in part because of the excessive use of force by some of its personnel in Baghdad, sought for years to extend its reach beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
For a time, the company's founder, Erik Prince, had ambitions to turn Blackwater into an informal arm of the U.S. foreign policy and national security apparatus, and proposed to the CIA to create a "quick reaction force" that could handle paramilitary operations for the spy agency around the world. He had hopes that Blackwater's military prowess could be an influential force in regional conflicts.
Interest in Africa
Prince, a former Navy Seal and the heir to an auto parts fortune, took an interest in Africa, particularly the Sudan, and he is said to have wanted Blackwater to step in to help the rebels in southern Sudan, which is predominantly Christian and animist, fight the Sudanese government and the Muslim north, despite U.S. economic sanctions.
The State Department export controls require government approval for the transfer of certain types of military technology or knowledge from the United States to other countries. But Blackwater began to seek training contracts from foreign governments and other foreign organizations without adhering closely to U.S. regulations.
A federal investigation into the company's weapons shipments to Iraq led to guilty pleas on criminal charges by two former Blackwater employees who are believed to have cooperated with a broader federal inquiry.
