Academi LLC, the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide and later Xe Services, settled a case with the U.S. alleging an array of crimes, from illegally exporting items to countries under U.S. sanctions to giving weapons to the king of Jordan.
A bill of information and a deferred-prosecution agreement in the case were unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New Bern, N.C. Under the agreement, Academi admitted to certain facts in the case and agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine on top of the $42 million it paid in an earlier settlement with the State Department.
With the agreement, the Justice Department said the U.S. government acknowledges the company’s efforts to reform its conduct and to mitigate the damage caused by its conduct. Despite its scandal-plagued past, Academi was recognized last month for its recent anti-corruption efforts by the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.
This company changes its name so often that we missed that they had changed it from Xe to Academi. How bad must your company’s reputation be that you have to change your name twice to shake off bad press?