Updated on
Summary
US Federal prosecutors charged the former president of Blackwater Worldwide and four other former senior company officials on Friday with weapons violations and making false statements in the first criminal inquiry to reach into the top management ranks of the private security company. The executives were some of the closest advisers to Blackwaters founder, Erik Prince, and helped him steer the company during its swift rise to become the leading contractor providing security for American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan, working for the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon. They were also the senior executives in charge during the companys most turbulent period, after its security guards were involved in a series of shootings, including one in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. Prince, who was not charged, remains at the helm of the company, now known as Xe Services, while many other executives have left as the company has sought to reshape its public image in the face of mounting legal and political scrutiny. While the indictment is somewhat limited in scope, it could be the governments opening salvo in a broader offensive to bring criminal charges against the company. They could include charges for bribery and export violations, according to officials familiar with the case, perhaps under a strategy of turning former and current executives of the company against one another. A federal grand jury in Raleigh, N.C., issued the 15-count indictment against Gary Jackson, Blackwaters former president; William Matthews, the former executive vice president; Andrew Howell, the former general counsel; Ana Bundy, a former vice president; and Ronald Slezak, a former weapons manager, charging that they conspired to skirt federal weapons laws and then tried to hide their actions. The charges stem in part from a 2008 raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms of Blackwaters Moyock, N.C., headquarters complex, where agents seized 22 weapons, including 17 AK-47s. The former officials are charged with trying to hide the companys purchases of the weapons by making it seem as if they had been bought by a North Carolina sheriffs office. Blackwater sought to have the sheriff pose as the owner of the weapons because federal firearms law made it illegal for Blackwater to have so many of them, according to the indictment. Other charges relate to the companys large inventory of short-barrel rifles, deadly and especially useful in tight spots, which by law must be registered. Federal prosecutors charge that Blackwater shipped the weapons overseas with the barrels detached in an effort to avoid export regulations. The executives are also charged with trying to hide gifts of expensive weapons to Jordanian officials who were visiting Blackwater at a time when the company was trying to win contracts from Jordans government.
