U.S. seeks to drop charges against Agility

U.S. seeks to drop charges against Agility
   The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia has filed a motion to dismiss a fraud case against Agility Logistics, potentially ending one aspect of a three-year ordeal for the Kuwait based company that cost it a significant amount of government business.
   A case worker at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia confirmed a motion was filed Monday to dismiss the indictment against Public Warehousing Co., Agility's Kuwait parent company, and its Agility Defense & Government Services subsidiary. A judge has yet to rule on the request.
   Agility said in a statement the move to dismiss the case followed motions Agility Defense & Government Services Holdings filed to force the government to show its evidence, including price negotiation memoranda.
   The request to dismiss pertains only to Agility DGS Holdings, and not to Public Warehousing Co. or Agility DGS Logistics Services, the two other defendants in the case, according to Bloomberg.
   The Justice Department began investigating Agility in 2007 after a whistleblower lawsuit by a former business associate and cousin of Chairman and Managing Director Tarek Sultan. A grand jury indicted the global third-party logistics provider for allegedly submitting inflated bills and false claims under a large food procurement and delivery contract with the Defense Department to serve troops stationed in Iraq and Kuwait.

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   The U.S. government suspended Agility from bidding on any new contracts until the case is resolved. Agility pleaded not guilty and has spent the last several months trying to reach a settlement with the U.S. attorney's office.
   'As we have consistently maintained since the outset of this litigation, this case should never have been brought in the first place in a criminal court. This case is, at most, a civil contract dispute over the interpretation of a contract drafted by the government,' Agility said in a statement.
   'One thing that has always been crystal clear is that Agility has provided — and continues to provide — exceptional service to U.S. troops and superior value to American taxpayers, working for seven years in a war zone on the largest U.S. military subsistence procurement contract in history. The food contract is one of nearly 130 U.S. government contracts and tenders by Agility and its affiliated companies.
   'We remain committed to attempting to resolve this civil contract dispute so that the distraction of litigation is removed and we can continue to focus on our business, including providing the excellent service to the troops that they have come to expect from us,' the statement read.
   Last month, Agility said it would focus on its commercial logistics business instead of depending so much on defense logistics revenue.
   To read more about how the case has impacted Agility, see 'Agility battles headwinds' in the June American Shipper. ' Eric Kulisch