Anham FZCO

"The indictment alleges that Abul Huda Farouki was the chief executive officer of Anham FZCO, a defense contractor based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which maintained offices in Dubai, UAE, Jordan and the United States.  Mazen Farouki was the President and Founder of Unitrans International Incorporated, an international logistics company with close ties to Anham.  Defendant Salah Maarouf operated a company that procured goods and services for Anham.  According to the indictment, on June 22, 2012, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Anham an $8 billion contract to provide food and supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan known as the “SPV-A contract.”  As part of the bidding process, the defendants allegedly caused Anham to represent that it would build two warehouses in Afghanistan, which Anham would use to provide supplies to U.S. forces.  The indictment alleges that the defendants schemed to defraud the Department of Defense in connection with the SPV-A contract by submitting bids that contained knowingly false estimates of the completion dates for the warehouses and by providing the government with misleading photographs intended to convey that Anham’s progress on the warehouses was further along than it actually was.  Specifically, the indictment alleges that, in February of 2012, the defendants and others caused Anham employees to transport construction equipment and materials to the proposed site of one of the warehouse complexes to create the false appearance of an active construction site.  Members of the conspiracy then photographed the site, provided the photographs to the Department of Defense, and then largely deconstructed the staged construction site. The SPV-A contract also required bidders to certify that they abide by the Iran Sanctions Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens and companies from engaging in commercial activity in Iran.  According to the indictment, the defendants conspired to increase Anham’s profits in connection with the SPV-A contract by shipping warehouse building materials to Afghanistan via Iran, instead of using more costly, but legal, routes.  According to the indictment, after learning that the Wall Street Journal was planning to run a story detailing Anham’s practice of shipping materials through Iran, Abul Huda Farouki sent an email to a senior Department of Defense official, which falsely claimed that senior management at Anham had been unaware that the transshipments through Anham had taken place." (DOJ, "Senior Executives at Defense Contracting Firms Charged with Scheme to Defraud Military in Connection with $8 Billion Troop Supply Contract and with Violating the Iran Sanctions Regime," 11/29/2018). 

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On April 7, 2017, food supply contractor for the U.S. military in Afghanistan asked a Virginia federal judge to toss a recently unsealed False Claims Act suit brought to it. In 2014, Anham was accused of misleading the government about the construction of a warehouse and its transportation of goods through Iran.

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Anham lists a U.S. website on its primary UAE website.

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"The Pentagon's criminal investigations arm is probing one of the American military's largest suppliers in Afghanistan over allegations that it violated U.S. law by moving supplies through Iran, the Defense Department told lawmakers. Anham FZCO, a company based in Dubai and Virginia, won a contract in 2012 worth an estimated $8.1 billion to supply food and water to American forces inside Afghanistan, one of the largest of the 12-year war in the Central Asian country. An article in The Wall Street Journal in September, which prompted the investigation, disclosed that Anham relied on the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and on Iranian supply routes to move steel, tractors and refrigeration panels into Afghanistan to build warehouses and other logistical centers. Anham's actions may have violated strict U.S. sanctions laws that prohibit American entities from conducting trade with Iran or Iranian companies by moving materials through the country, Obama administration officials said. In September, Anham said it had voluntarily notified the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments that some of its supplies in Afghanistan were moved by foreign subcontractors through Bandar Abbas. At the time, the company said it was conducting an internal review of these shipments to ascertain if it broke any U.S. laws. On Monday, it said that review was continuing. Anham's lawyer, Clif Burns, said Monday the company hadn't been notified of the probe and that the Inspector General's office wouldn't confirm to him any investigation…Senators Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) pressed the Pentagon's Inspector General to open an investigation into Anham due to concerns the company may have directly done business with Iran's elite military unit, the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The corps controls some of the container ports at Bandar Abbas, the U.S. Treasury says. The U.S. lawmakers asked in an October letter to the Inspector General whether Anham's contract could be restricted or terminated and if any disciplinary action had been taken against Anham executives. 'Until the investigation is able to establish the relevant facts, we will not be able to respond meaningfully to the three questions posed,; Acting Assistant Inspector General Larry Turner responded to Mr. Kirk in a letter late last month. In that letter, the Inspector General's office notified Mr. Kirk that it has 'initiated an investigation into the public revelations concerning Anham FZCO's alleged use of Iranian ports to supply U.S. forces in Afghanistan'…Anham last year won a multiyear supply contract to provide food and water to troops in Afghanistan worth an estimated $8.1 billion. The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Anham submitted a bid for the contract that was more than $1 billion below the bid of its main competitor, Supreme Foodservice GmbH…Anham made a voluntary disclosure in September to the Treasury and Commerce Departments regarding transshipments through Iran, after the company was contacted about the matter by the Journal. The logistics agency said Anham was 'still in the process of providing documentation on the matter.' It added that 'no changes have been made to the SPV Afghanistan contract' since the disclosure. 'As Anham is still in the process of preparing their official disclosure to the Department of Commerce and Department of Treasury, any actions would be premature,' the statement read. 'We will make an informed decision on next steps once we have all the facts.'" (Wall Street Journal, "Pentagon Probes Firm for Violation of Iran Rules," 12/23/13)

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"Two U.S. senators have requested that the Pentagon's inspector general broadly investigate a contract awarded to a Dubai company that the lawmakers believe may have violated U.S. sanctions by using Iran as a route to ship goods to Afghanistan. Republican Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said in a letter to the inspector general that Anham FZCO also may have conducted business with a port operator owned by Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The lawmakers asked whether the Pentagon should revoke Anham's contract to supply all food and water to American forces in Afghanistan—estimated to be worth at least $8 billion to the company—or levy a fine…Anham said in a statement last month that it had voluntarily notified the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency and the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control that its foreign contractor had moved some supplies for Afghanistan through Iran. Anham, which has offices in Virginia, said last month it had launched an internal investigation to assess whether it broke any U.S. sanctions laws barring trade with Iran or shipments through the country. A spokesman for the company declined to provide further comment on Wednesday. Anham built up large warehouses inside Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012 in order to win the Pentagon contract to service American forces there with food and water, the Journal reported last month. The company, according to internal emails viewed by the Journal, moved building equipment and tractors into Afghanistan using Iranian land routes coming from the port at Bandar Abbas…Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte in their letter focused on Anham's use of Iran's Bandar Abbas port to move supplies to Afghanistan. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Tidewater Middle East Co., the Iranian company that operates most of the Bandar Abbas facility, for being owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury alleges the Iranian military unit has used Bandar Abbas to export arms. Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte, citing a Treasury fact sheet on Tidewater, wrote that shipments to the firms' facilities 'provide an avenue of revenue' for the Revolutionary Guard." (Wall Street Journal, "Senators Want Probe of Contractor for Possible Iran Sanctions Violations," 10/23/13)

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"The company that holds the multibillion-dollar Pentagon contract to supply U.S. forces in Afghanistan with food and water brought in supplies to build an Afghan warehouse through Iran, in a possible violation of U.S. sanctions. Anham FZCO used Iran's Bandar Abbas seaport last year to land equipment and building materials that were then transported across Iran, according to business executives involved in the process and corporate emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Completing the warehouse at Bagram military base near Kabul put Anham in position to win the Pentagon supply contract, which it did in June 2012. Anham, which the Journal asked about the matter about two weeks ago, said in a statement on Sunday that it 'has made a voluntary disclosure to the Treasury and Commerce Departments that some items were transshipped through Iran.' Anham said 'foreign-produced items shipped by a third party vendor hired by a foreign subsidiary of Anham' were involved, adding that 'all or some…may have been eligible for such transshipment under legal exceptions in place at the time.' Anham said it 'is working with Treasury and Commerce to fully investigate the matter to determine what occurred and to determine whether any laws were broken' . . . The Pentagon has estimated the value of Anham's multiyear supply contract at $8.1 billion. It has a ceiling of $30 billion in the unlikely event the U.S. ramps up the war again. Anham said its top executives became aware of the Iranian connection only over the past week . . . Anham announced its bid for the supply contract in 2011, seeking to become what is known as the Subsistence Prime Vendor to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to Afghan corporate registry documents. As part of its bid, the company was building a food warehouse at Bagram Air Field and getting building supplies through the Pakistan port of Karachi, according to internal communications . . . Anham then brought in three consignments through Iran, according to company emails and officials briefed on the shipments. These included a delivery of steel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; insulation panels from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; and 28 'lowboy' trailers from Kuwait plus trucks to pull them." (Wall Street Journal, "Pentagon Contractor Used Iran for Project," 9/26/12)