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Showing posts with label terry macauliffe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terry macauliffe. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

ANHAM FZCO, Criminally Investigated By Pentagon for Illegally Delivering U.S. Military Supplies Through IRAN, Using American Tax Payer Dollars

Did ANHAM use American tax payer dollars to finance Iran's Revolutionary Guards (Kidnappers of Americans & Funders of World Terrorism) to delivery goods for American soldiers in Afghanistan? Worse, how is this company STILL holding the largest food contract for feeding American soldiers?

A new December 23, 2013 reports by Bloomberg cited that Pentagon’s criminal investigations arm is seriously probing one of the American military’s largest suppliers in Afghanistan over allegations that it violated U.S. law by moving supplies through Iran, the Defense Department told lawmakers. An article in The Wall Street Journal in September, which prompted the investigation, disclosed that Anham relied on the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and on Iranian supply routes to move steel, tractors and refrigeration panels into Afghanistan to build warehouses and other logistical centers. Anham’s actions may have violated strict U.S. sanctions laws that prohibit American entities from conducting trade with Iran or Iranian companies by moving materials through the country, Obama administration officials said.

Anham made a voluntary disclosure in September to the Treasury and Commerce Departments regarding transshipments through Iran, after the company was contacted about the matter by the Journal. The logistics agency said Anham was “still in the process of providing documentation on the matter.” It added that “no changes have been made to the SPV Afghanistan contract” since the disclosure. “As Anham is still in the process of preparing their official disclosure to the Department of Commerce and Department of Treasury, any actions would be premature,” the statement read. “We will make an informed decision on next steps once we have all the facts.”



Senators Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) pressed the Pentagon’s Inspector General to open an investigation into Anham due to concerns the company may have directly done business with Iran’s elite military unit, the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The corps controls some of the container ports at Bandar Abbas, the U.S. Treasury says. The U.S. lawmakers asked in an October letter to the Inspector General whether Anham’s contract could be restricted or terminated and if any disciplinary action had been taken against Anham executives. “Until the investigation is able to establish the relevant facts, we will not be able to respond meaningfully to the three questions posed,” Acting Assistant Inspector General Larry Turner responded to Mr. Kirk in a letter late last month. In that letter, the Inspector General’s office notified Mr. Kirk that it has “initiated an investigation into the public revelations concerning Anham FZCO’s alleged use of Iranian ports to supply U.S. forces in Afghanistan.” Anham executives also said Monday that the company’s chief executive officer, A. Huda Farouki, will step away from the day-to-day management of Anham in January, but will continue as the company’s board chairman and oversee an executive committee. Mr. Farouki will be succeeded by Jay Ward, who has served for the past year as Anham’s chief operating officer.

Media Sources validating the above story:


http://www.cfr.org/about/newsletters/archive/newsletter/n1626




Monday, October 28, 2013

Lawmakers Believe ANHAM Used Iran as Route to Ship Goods to Afghanistan



Senators Want Probe of Contractor for Possible Iran Sanctions Violations

Two senators have requested a broad investigation of a contract awarded to a Dubai company that the lawmakers believe may have violated U.S. sanctions by using Iran as a route to ship goods to Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON—Two U.S. senators have requested that the Pentagon’s inspector general broadly investigate a contract awarded to a Dubai company that the lawmakers believe may have violated U.S. sanctions by using Iran as a route to ship goods to Afghanistan.

Republican Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said in a letter to the inspector general that Anham FZCO also may have conducted business with a port operator owned by Iran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The lawmakers asked whether the Pentagon should revoke Anham’s contract to supply all food and water to American forces in Afghanistan—estimated to be worth at least $8 billion to the company—or levy a fine.

“We request that you urgently look into this matter, verify the recent public reports surrounding Anham, make recommendations on what to do with Anham’s existing U.S. government contracts and propose steps the department should take to ensure this does not happen again,” Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte wrote in a letter dated Tuesday to Inspector General Jon Rymer, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Anham said in a statement last month that it had voluntarily notified the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control that its foreign contractor had moved some supplies for Afghanistan through Iran.

Anham, which has offices in Virginia, said last month it had launched an internal investigation to assess whether it broke any U.S. sanctions laws barring trade with Iran or shipments through the country. A spokesman for the company declined to provide further comment on Wednesday.
Anham built up large warehouses inside Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012 in order to win the Pentagon contract to service American forces there with food and water, the Journal reported last month. The company, according to internal emails viewed by the Journal, moved building equipment and tractors into Afghanistan using Iranian land routes coming from the port at Bandar Abbas.
Supply routes via Pakistan weren’t available at the time because of a ban imposed by the government there in late 2011 after U.S. warplanes mistakenly attacked a Pakistani military base.

A spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general’s office confirmed officials had received the letter from the lawmakers, but she declined to comment about any further investigation.
Anham’s case represents the difficulties the U.S. military has faced in moving supplies to forces fighting in both Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade. Both countries border Iran, and U.S. military personnel have acknowledged that Iran may offer the cheapest and quickest routes for moving supplies. But American sanctions ban such trade by American companies.
Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte in their letter focused on Anham’s use of Iran’s Bandar Abbas port to move supplies to Afghanistan.

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Tidewater Middle East Co., the Iranian company that operates most of the Bandar Abbas facility, for being owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury alleges the Iranian military unit has used Bandar Abbas to export arms. Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte, citing a Treasury fact sheet on Tidewater, wrote that shipments to the firms’ facilities “provide an avenue of revenue” for the Revolutionary Guard.