Today, the New York Times carried a story by James Risen detailing an agreement between Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe Services and the U.S. Department of State. Blackwater has agreed to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds of violations of United States export control regulations. According to the story, violations included illegal weapons shipments to Afghanistan, making unauthorized proposals to train troops in the Sudan and providing sniper training for Taiwanese police officers.
The case has not yet been posted to the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls website so details on the specific charges and the agreement itself are forthcoming.
The article indicates that there was activities intending to hide the transfer of arms without authorization. In such a case, section 22 C.F.R. 127.3 addresses the willful violation of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2778 and 2779) where the violator can be subject upon conviction of a fine or imprisonment or both.
With civil violations, a fine of up to $500,000 per occurrence can be levied along with denial of privileges to export or do business with the U.S. Government. In case of criminal activity, the fines can increase up to $1,000,000 per occurrence with up to 10 years imprisonment. We will have to wait and see which if any of the Blackwater executives wind up being convicted of willful violation and if convicted, the resulting penalties.
The complete article is available at the New York Times website, here.
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