War & Disaster Profiteering

Documents unearthed as part of a whistleblower suit against private security company, Custer Battles, reveal the extent to which the defense contractor is accused of gouging the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq following the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003. Read More

Partnerships between multinational companies and tribal businesses, most of them Alaska Native corporations, have skyrocketed in recent years. Read More

Congressman Henry Waxman wants information on pacts awarded to a defense contractor whose board of directors includes President Bush's uncle. Read More

Ibrahim Jaafari, the prime-minister-to-be in Iraq, is unlikely to hand over the nation's valuable oil assets to foreign companies, but he won't be able to do much about the rest of the Iraqi economy, which was strangled by Coalition Provisional Authority chief L. Paul Bremer in rules and regulations benefiting Western business. Read More

South Africa's forced removal of the Pomfret community is seen by observers as an attempt to break up the "ready-made" army of unemployed war vets who have been working in Iraq and elsewhere despite stringent mercenary prohibitions. Read More

Titan Corp. has pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it bribed foreign officials for business favors and agreed to pay $28.5 million in both criminal and civil fines to the federal government to settle the charges. Read More

A history of recent wars makes the region attractive to private companies recruiting for security forces, including El Salvador, the only Latin American country to maintain troops in the US-led coalition in Iraq. While the small nation has 338 soldiers on the ground, there are about twice as many Salvadorans working there for private contracting companies. Read More

In the biggest foreign-bribery penalty under U.S. law, Titan Corp. pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle allegations that it covered up payments in six countries, including millions of dollars funneled to an associate of an African president to influence a national election. Read More

The Justice Department is looking into whether former Halliburton Co. employees conspired with other companies to rig bids for large overseas construction projects, according to the company. Read More

In an annual 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Halliburton stated that the the U.S. Justice Department is investigating former employees who may have engaged in bid-rigging as early as the mid-1980s. Read More