Former Blackwater pays $7.5M for alleged arms smuggling, export violations

The security contractor formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle federal criminal charges related to export violations and arms smuggling, the Associated Press reports.

The company agreed to pay the fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement to settle 17 charges. Criminal counts allege Blackwater illegally exported encrypted satellite phones to Sudan in 2005, according to documents unsealed Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in North Carolina.

Blackwater also allegedly provided technical data on how to construct armored personnel carriers to Sweden and Denmark from 2006 to 2008 without the necessary State Department authorization, according to the report.

The list includes charges of possessing automatic weapons in the U.S. without registration, as well as allegations related to weapons given as gifts to Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Blackwater also exported ammunition and body armor to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004 and 2006 without first obtaining a U.S. government license, according to the allegations.

The company was founded in 1997 by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince. It nabbed the spotlight after its outsized no-bid security contracts from U.S. government at the beginning of the Iraq War came to light, according to the report.

The company changed its name to Xe before being sold in 2011 and renamed Academi. In a statement issued after the settlement was made public, however, Academi officials denied guilt for a “legacy matter,” AP reports.

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