Founder Puts Blackwater Security Firm Up for Sale

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — Burdened by lawsuits, criminal investigations and negative publicity stemming from its private security work in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater
Worldwide is being put up for sale, the company has announced.

Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe Services
and brought in new management last year in order to remake its image,
is pursuing a sale in part because that overhaul has failed to change
perceptions of the company, most critically inside government, which is
its main customer.

Erik Prince, the former member of the Navy Seals and heir to an
automotive fortune who founded Blackwater, said in a statement given to
The Associated Press late Monday that making the decision to sell the
company was difficult, but that he no longer wanted to deal with the
intense criticism the business has faced.

“Performance doesn’t matter in Washington, just politics,” Mr. Prince
said.

A separate statement from the company’s headquarters, in Moyock, N.C.,
said, “Xe’s new management team has made significant changes and
improvements to the company over the last 15 months, which have enabled
the company to better serve the U.S. government and other customers, and
will deliver additional value to a purchaser.”

In March, Xe Services sold its aviation division, Presidential Airways,
to the AAR Corporation, which is based in Illinois. Among the company’s
largest remaining assets is the 7,000-acre compound it operates at its
headquarters, which includes shooting ranges, driving courses and other
facilities for military and law enforcement training.

The effort to sell the company comes in the wake of intense legal
scrutiny of its past management.

In April, five former Blackwater executives, including its past
president, Gary Jackson, who had served as Mr. Prince’s most trusted
lieutenant, were indicted on federal weapons charges.
Separately, the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into whether
Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government officials
in order to continue to operate in Iraq after a 2007 shooting involving
Blackwater guards in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed. Manslaughter
charges brought against five of the guards were dismissed last year, but
the Justice Department is appealing the decision.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/us/09blackwater.html?ref=world