Blackwater Buys Time

Academi LLC, better known by its earlier name, Blackwater, has forked over $7.5-million to buy a "Deferred Prosecution Agreement" from the U.S. government.

The case focuses on allegations that Blackwater misled the U.S. government about arming and training foreign governments.

The company isn't off the hook.  Blackwater Academi has bought a 36-month reprieve during which it can  try to persuade the Justice Department that any bad stuff was done by the previous management/owners, not the Academi crew.

The company has, however, stipulated to a bunch of bad stuff that did happen under the previous management, most of which is detailed here.

"Academi has the next three years to essentially prove to the Justice Department that all of this is a relic of the firm’s bad old days, before it came under new ownership and hired legal compliance officers. It may not have an easy case to make. Two employees who worked for Academi under its current management are suing the company for wrongful termination after they blew the whistle on a third employee’s attempts to fake the results of a gun test for Afghan security forces. The Justice Department may not be done with Academi/Blackwater yet."