Xe Services, LLC (Formerly Blackwater) Sold to USTC Holdings, LLC

At least when Blackwater was owned by Erik Prince, there was a face to go with the money. Now there are only unnamed partners in equity firms that are part of a consortium. One article announced: "The company going forward will be managed by a board appointed by the equity owners which will include independent, unaffiliated directors. The New York Times reported Friday the sale came after the State Department threatened to stop awarding contracts to the company as long as it was owned by Prince, a former Navy SEAL." The man who will be managing the company, however, is a long-time friend and business associate of Prince in the former Blackwater.

Companies mentioned in this article: USTC Holdings, LLC

Blackwater (Xe)

Stock of Erik Prince

NEW YORK -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- USTC Holdings, LLC, an investor consortium led by private equity firms Forté Capital Advisors (“Forté”) and Manhattan Partners (“Manhattan”), announced today that it has acquired Xe Services, LLC (“Xe” or the “Company”) and its core operating subsidiaries. Xe is a leading provider of training and technical services focused on worldwide diplomatic security operations. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

What Ever Happened To Peter Videnieks and Joseph Cuellar?

The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro

by Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith                             

Copyright (C) 1996                             

    "In the middle of the journey of life, I found myself in a dark wood, having lost the straight path." 

-- Quote from Dante's Inferno -- written in Danny Casolaro's notebook.

   Rounded edges of the Octopus tentacles arose briefly from under the relatively calm waters of a new administration's first year in office. Danny Casolaro was two years gone and the key players in the investigation he began ostensibly had left power after the 1993 election. Casolaro's work was left unfinished, however, and his metaphorical sea monster still swam in the sea of current events.

     Columnist William Safire reported [column reprinted below] that Bill Clinton and George Bush struck a secret deal after Clinton's election that the former president would withhold criticism of the new administration for one year in exchange for Clinton's soft-pedaling of the Iran-contra investigations. A month before the end of that deal, a month before the former Arkansas governor's first anniversary as president, the Clinton administration re-opened the Inslaw investigation. In December 1993, the FBI began again to interview Casolaro's close associates and friends with an eye toward resolving the question of his death--was it a suicide or murder?

What Ever Happened to BioRad?

This post has been updated here..