ArmorGroup North America, former employer of whistleblower James Gordon, loses Afghanistan Embassy contract

December 9, 2009

In the wake of scandals involving ArmorGroup, the State Department will seek new bids on the contract to staff and protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

In a December 9, 2009, article entitled “U.S. Seeks New Guards in Kabul,” the Wall Street Journal reported that the State Department was seeking a replacement for ArmorGroup North America (“ArmorGroup”), a private contractor that had been charged with protecting and staffing the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.  The article noted that in September 2009 the Project on Government Oversight exposed misconduct by ArmorGroup employees, including sexual hazing.

Also in September, KMB client James Gordon, a former ArmorGroup Director of Operations, filed a whistleblower retaliation suit against ArmorGroup. In his suit, Mr. Gordon alleged that he was terminated for reporting other ArmorGroup abuses at the Kabul Embassy, including serious understaffing and the failure to provide English-speaking guards, cited by the article as a reason for the State Department’s decision to seek new bids on the Kabul Embassy contract. Before ArmorGroup terminated him, Mr. Gordon also complained about ArmorGroup’s permitting employees to frequent brothels notorious for trafficking women; the purchase of counterfeit goods from a company owned by the wife of an ArmorGroup employee; and the substitution of inferior refurbished Iraqi vehicles for the armored escort vehicles it promised the State Department it would deliver.

ArmorGroup’s contract, awarded in 2007, was to last for 5 years, renewed annually. The State Department’s decision to seek new bids means that ArmorGroup will be replaced in June 2010.

Related Links

Read the Wall Street Journal article: “U.S. Seeks New Guards in Kabul”