Armed Services Hearing: Blackwater Used Shell Companies To Bid On Contracts
This kind of thing's been going on for a very long time, often with the cooperation of crooked politicians and government employees taking kickbacks. The good part is, Blackwater was actually caught doing it:
WASHINGTON — Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.
While it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.
The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee’s investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq.
The network of companies — which includes several businesses located in offshore tax havens — allowed Blackwater to obscure its involvement in government work from contracting officials or the public, and to assure a low profile for any of its classified activities, said former Blackwater officials, who, like the government officials, spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that it was worth “looking into why Blackwater would need to create the dozens of other names” and said he had requested that the Justice Department investigate whether Blackwater officers misled the government when using subsidiaries to solicit contracts.
No. Never happens. Corporations can bilk the U.S. government out of billions and nothing's ever done...no one is ever held accountable because, "Oh, the corporation did it. It's the corporation's fault." Seize the damn corporation, then, and liquidate its assets to pay for the stolen money.
Here's another question: why are corporations that are registered and located in "offshore tax havens" receiving ANY U.S. government contracts at all? This should NEVER happen. Don't want to pay U.S. taxes? Then don't plan on receiving any U.S. money. Period. This loophole should be closed immediately. Not that any of our elected officials have the balls to do it--or even propose it.
Blackwater and Associates know to much. The fox got into the hen house and the farmer is going to continue to supply chickens whether the farmer likes it or not. We made a deal with the devil and "The Powers That Be" will not prosecute. Open court is a nasty place to hang out dirty laundry.
Blackwater, now Xe, is a stain on this nation
No worries. Harry Reid is writing a harshly worded letter.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
No foolin', Sherlock!
We have surrendered our passion for freedom to the acquisition of stuff. We cannot even mount a decent opposition to wars that are destroying what little we have left in our treasury or to resist the oligarchy that has taken over our electoral process.
After every major war a commission is formed to investigate the fraud by war contractors.
Darn! They did it again!
Gollee Dam!
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
Nobody could have foreseen such a thing!
Another shocker !
What they're going to find out is that the subsidiary companies acted as sub-contractors. Presumably these no-bid cost-plus contracts have a contract on the 'plus' part of the equation. So, to maximize profits:
Let's assume that the PLUS = 20%
Company A hires a mercenary thug at $1,000 dollars (COST) + $200 (PLUS)
Company B buys that contract for $1200, then sells it to the government for $1,200 PLUS $240.
If A is a subsidiary of B or vice versa the company has increased its profits by 120%, bilking the government out of more than twice what its entitled to.
Meanwhile the government could have just recruited the soldier directly, by doubling the current US military salary and providing full medical care for life and a free university education -- and still saved money. But then the soldier would have been subject to the UCMJ, and you wouldn't have things like torture, $8.8 BILLION in cash going missing and women getting gang-raped with NO investigation whatsoever. The Bush administration set things up like this deliberately to create a lawless environment and avoid accountability.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
but the stench of corruption in government contracts goes way further back than that. Dubya and Co. just turned the whole thing into a "Black Friday" stampede. With the willing assistance of Republican AND Democratic politicians -- yeah, I'm looking right at you Senator Feinstein (CA - D).
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Don't think you can go holding them accountible, I mean, it was only a crime against the American tax payer.
Boy, I wish we had a group that was standing up for the American tax payer...but no, we only get shit like the Tea Baggers who claim to be fighting for the American tax payer but in reality they are only fighting to ensure that corporations don't have any taxes or any regulations.
And of course we have the dems who don't seem to be fighting at all.
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