In a growing list of legal incidents involving maritime security professionals, Port2Port West Africa has confirmed that two of its security contractors were arrested on March 28 in Nigeria. The company denies the allegations made against the two men. Vincent Hayward and Piers Eastward, were arrested by the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, after being detained as part of an investigation into a third party suspected of crude oil theft.

Also in the last week, the Estonian foreign ministry has announced that shipping company AdvanFort has paid the bail for the Estonian maritime security guards that are detained in an Indian prison. However, they won't be released from prison before Tuesday, according to local media, due to technical reasons.

The President’s budget this past year reflect a unified approach to budgeting for the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of State, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operations in conflict areas. By aligning priority missions across these agencies, the Budget takes advantage of the efficiencies, improves coordination, and reduced overall costs. Further, isolating the military and civilian costs related to temporary and extraordinary requirements in the OCO request promotes transparency and efficiency across the security agencies of the Federal Government. The President’s 2013 Budget provided $96.7 billion for these operations, a reduction of 24 percent below last years enacted level.

Olive Group FZ-LLC has become the first private security company globally to achieve accredited certification against the PSC1 standard for private security companies. This follows a rigorous process of audit and inspection of its corporate management systems and its field operations in Iraq. In December 2012, the British Government endorsed the American National Standard Institute's PSC.1 2012 as the standard against which private security companies operating in complex environments like Iraq should be evaluated.

"Olive Group is delighted to be the first company to receive accredited certification covering its corporate processes and its extensive operations in Iraq. Its management systems, training, operational procedures and commitment to human rights were rigorously tested in the audit and certification process conducted by the international certification body Intertek" says Martin Rudd, Managing Director of Olive Group.

MEMPHIS, TENN. — Federal prosecutors say a U.S. contractor who worked in Iraq has pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return. The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis says 44-year-old Darrin Albert Searle entered the guilty plea eariler this week. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29. According to facts revealed in documents and in court, Searle failed to disclose $618,186 of income he received through kickbacks while working as a government contractor in Iraq in 2007.

Searle had been required to file amended returns and pay all relevant taxes, interest and penalties. The case was investigated by the Special Investigator General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Department of the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations.

KBR Inc. and Halliburton Co. aren’t automatically immune from lawsuits by military service members over illnesses caused by exposure to contractor burn pits, a U.S. appeals court said, reversing a lower court ruling. KBR is only entitled to immunity if it adhered to the terms of its contract with the government, something the district court failed to explore adequately, U.S. Circuit Judge Henry Floyd wrote in sending the case back for further proceedings.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel in Richmond, Virginia, is the latest rebuff to KBR’s argument that it should be insulated from liability in lawsuits over its performance in Iraq and Afghanistan by laws shielding contractors during wartime. KBR is disappointed by the ruling and is evaluating options for appeal, Richard Goins, a company spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.

One of the more controversial proposals in the Pentagon’s latest budget is the cutting of the active duty Army from its post 9/11 peak of 560,000 soldiers to approximately 450,000. If sequester pressures remain in 2016, numbers could go to 420,000 or even fewer. Critics assert that slimming the Army to numbers not seen since before WWII will require a time intensive process to grow more forces when faced with another large scale operation.

This will send a dangerous message to potential adversaries who will question our ability to respond to aggression. Pentagon leaders counter that these cuts are manageable and that our ground forces will remain more competent and lethal than any potential foe. I am sympathetic to the critics’ arguments that we cannot wish away the need for robust and ready ground forces.

The federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Akbar Ahmad Sherzai, an independent contractor for a trucking company operating in Afghanistan that was responsible for delivering fuel to U.S. Army installations, pleaded guilty to his role in offering a U.S. Army serviceman $54,000 in bribes to falsify documents to reflect the successful delivery of fuel shipments that Army records indicate were never delivered. When sentenced, he faces a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

The guilty plea was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, “The defendant sought to use deception, corruption, and greed to enrich his company at the risk of jeopardizing the U.S. Army’s supply lines in Afghanistan. Attempts to corrupt American officials will not be tolerated, either at home or abroad,”

The Navy has quietly lifted the suspension of a shipping contractor under investigation for possible fraud, allowing the company to compete for new work. In exchange, the company has agreed to pay for an independent audit that could help the Justice Department determine how much it may have overcharged the government.

Records show that the Navy recently decided to reinstate Inchcape Shipping Services, a company based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The move came after a federal judge questioned whether the service had presented enough evidence to justify the suspension. Contracting experts said it was unusual for the government to turn to an outside auditor in this type of case, and some questioned whether an independent firm could do as thorough a job.

Casals & Associates, a DynCorp International company, today announced that it has been awarded a position on a multiple award, indefinite quantity contract (IQC) to support U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) transition initiatives in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean as part of the Support Which Implements Fast Transition IV (SWIFT IV) program.

“Casals has successfully supported previous iterations of the SWIFT program over the last decade,” said George Krivo, senior vice president, DynLogistics. “We are excited to continue this important work as an implementing partner of USAID.”

As a U.S. citizen/green card holder residing abroad, you still owe U.S. taxes on your worldwide income.  The U.S. has tax treaties with many countries, which allows the federal government to exchange data on its citizens living in other countries for tax purposes. Most importantly, if you do not file a tax return for a given tax year, the statute of limitations on that year never runs out.

If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live or work abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to an amount of your foreign earnings that is now adjusted for inflation $91,400 for 2009, $91,500 for 2010, $92,900 for 2011, $95,100 for 2012 and $97,600 for tax year 2013.

Three G4S guards who joked about an asylum seeker on Manus Island swallowing a pair of nail clippers are no longer working for the company, which was hired to run the detention center. Darren Powell, Jason Drain and Paul Clear ridiculed an asylum seeker who swallowed the nail clippers on Christmas Day in a series of Facebook posts.

“Merry Christmas all. One of these jokers just swallowed a pair of nail clippers. RALMFAO. A Christmas I shall not easily forget,” Powell posted in his publicly accessible profile. RALMFAO stands for “rolling around laughing my freaking ass off”.

A former NATO commander in Afghanistan is behind bars in a Kabul prison accused of gun smuggling in a case that has again highlighted the dangers of doing business in the country. Daniel Menard, who left the Canadian army in disgrace after admitting a sexual relationship with a subordinate while on duty in Kandahar, was detained by Kabul police on January 10.

The Ministry of Interior has accused the former brigadier-general of being in possession of 129 rifles and 148 radios, all of which they say he was not licensed to hold. He had been working as the Afghanistan country manager for Garda World, a global private security company that provides services across parts of Afghanistan.

For the past 11 years, logisticians have had their hands full in Afghanistan. For one, the country is landlocked and far from a seaport. The terrain, especially in the strategically important east, is covered with mountains; and the country’s road network is much less advanced than the one in Iraq. Over the years, the Air Force and Army airdropped supplies on remote bases, from large parts for military vehicles parachuted out of airplanes to “Speedballs,” body bags filled with water and ammunition, that could be tossed out of a helicopter to resupply troops under fire.

For most of the past decade, the logistical focus has been on getting equipment out to troops fighting in remote areas. “Doctrine states when you’re starting an operation, it’s always a push,” says Major Rosendo Pagan, executive officer of the 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. But with less than 23 months before the vast majority of U.S. Troops are out of Afghanistan, logisticians have focused much of their efforts on what Pagan calls “the pull phase”: bringing equipment back from far-flung outposts.