Blackwater Pays Millions in Arms Smuggling Case
August 9th, 2012Via: Wired:
Depending on how you look at it, the world’s most notorious mercenary firm just got away with misleading the government about arming and training foreign governments — or the company agreed to pay millions, only to defer a potential prosecution on those charges. The firm formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to fork over $7.5 million to the Justice Department $7.5 million to avoid going to court on 17 criminal charges. It’s not exactly a bank-breaker for the company, now known as Academi LLC. Then again, the legal deal announced yesterday doesn’t get Academi entirely off the hook.
On Tuesday, Academi and the Justice Department entered into a “Deferred Prosecution Agreement” that allows Academi to spend the next 36 months convincing the government that its extra-legal extracurricular activities are all in the past, a vestige of the firm’s former owners. If it can’t, however, Academi may have federal prosecutors breathing down their necks.
In a statement, Academi described itself as “pleased” to reach the deal on what spokesman John Procter pointedly called a “legacy matter” — that is, an account that the current ownership, which took control of the firm in late 2010, had nothing to do with.
A “Deferred Prosecution Agreement”? That’s a new one to me. Wonder if that’s outlined in the constitution somewhere…
Does this mean I can rob a bank, pay the Justice Dept. $1 million and then spend the next three years proving that it was just a “legacy matter” in my psyche that caused my actions? Sounds like a rather lucrative proposition. Guess I’d also have to change my name, and pay off some higher-ups in whichever current administration.