Agility Wasn't Properly Told of Criminal Charges, Magistrate Judge Says

Agility, accused of overbilling the U.S. for military supplies, wasn’t properly notified by prosecutors of the criminal charges against it, a magistrate judge said.

U.S. Magistrate Alan Baverman, in a report dated yesterday, criticized a “scattershot approach to service” of the Kuwaiti company, calling it “insufficient.” He is taking a motion to dismiss the case under advisement, according to a synopsis of the proceedings in court today posted on the court docket.

Baverman said the company isn’t considered a “fugitive,” which would have lowered the standard for service. In addition, the U.S. served legal paperwork to a series of people affiliated with company subsidiaries who weren’t authorized to accept service, and to a company attorney, which didn’t constitute proper service.

The company was indicted in November on allegations it overcharged the U.S. government on a multibillion-dollar contract to supply food for troops in Kuwait and Iraq. The Kuwaiti company is “war-profiting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Nelan has claimed. In June, prosecutors said Agility, the Middle East’s largest storage and logistics company, may still be overbilling the U.S.

Prosecutors have claimed the company is a fugitive from the U.S. that is trying to evade a trial on charges of overbilling on military supplies. Agility, based in Safat, Kuwait, has consistently claimed it hasn’t been properly served in the case.

The company said April 28 it was negotiating with the U.S. Justice Department on a possible settlement of the case.

The case is U.S. v. Public Warehousing Co., 09-cr-490, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta).

To contact the reporter on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net.

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