State rewards Blackwater after finding fraudulent practices.

A January 2005 reporton Blackwater’s Iraq contract by the State Department’s inspector general found “problems with how Blackwater tallied its labor costs, its overhead-expense costs, and its indirect costs. It also found that Blackwater cited its profit from the contract as a cost it incurred, and billed the government for it — resulting in what the report called ‘a pyramiding of profit.’” According to TPM’s Spencer Ackerman, who obtained the report through a FOIA request, the State Department “re-signed a deal with the company” months after finding the fraudulent accounting. More here.