DUBAI – In a United Nations report, Blackwater founder Erik Prince accuses him of aiding and abetting an international arms embargo on Libya, which diplomats say puts the military contractor at risk for UN sanctions.
The report by the UN expert team that monitors the ban on the transfer of weapons to Libya says that companies run by Mr. Prince controlled, provided three aircraft to send helicopters and military contractors to help Russian-backed Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar in 2019.
The plan to send Western mercenaries to Libya developed when foreign weapons and fighters entered the country in 2019 and 2020 from a variety of outside powers, including Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, deepening the conflict that has raged since 2014. is underway, reported according to the diplomat.
Erik Prins. (Fox News Screenshot)
According to the New York-based diplomat and a former official with knowledge of the situation, Prince is likely to be referred to the UN Sanctions Committee, which could freeze his assets or a travel ban. The permanent members of the Security Council, including the US, Russia or China, could impose any possible sanctions on Mr. Prince, who has had all three countries, veto.
“Erik Prince has absolutely nothing to do with any operation in Libya in 2019, or at any other time,” a spokesman for Mr. Prince said in an email.
“Erik Prince had absolutely nothing to do with any operation in Libya in 2019 or at any other time.”
A UN spokesman said the organization had no specific comment on the expert panel.
“It is the task of our member states to ensure that the sanctions are respected and enforced,” said UN spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric De La Rivière.
The report itself was finalized and submitted to UN headquarters in New York. According to diplomats, it will probably not be changed until it is introduced to the public in the coming weeks.
Mr. Prince, a former SEAL of the Navy, became famous during the Iraq war when Blackwater provided private security guards to U.S. officials and contractors working for the company. More than a dozen Iraqi civilians were shot dead in a massacre in Baghdad in 2007. Blackwater, meanwhile, changed its name to Xe Services and later Academi.
Prince’s financial and political ambitions have risen as a result of his close relationship with the Trump administration. Mr. Prince is the brother of mr. Trump’s former secretary of education, Betsy DeVos. In December, Mr. Trump pardoned the four Blackwater guards accused of the 2007 murder.
Shell companies
According to the diplomat, the forthcoming UN report says that companies run by Mr. Prince controlled, sold three planes to people who sent Western mercenaries and military equipment to Mr. To assist Haftar in the first months of the commander’s failed attack on Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli. The attack of mr. Haftar in the capital, launched in April 2019, has plunged Libya into its worst fighting since the armed rebellion that overthrew Colonel Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
According to the diplomat, the report from the UN panel states that companies run by Mr. Prince is controlled, selling three planes through a series of shell companies to a company in Dubai, Lancaster 6, which sent helicopters and a group of Western mercenaries to Libya to kill Mr. Haftar. The plan was unraveled and the fighters left Libya.
One of the planes, a Pilatus PC-6, was delivered to Libya, according to the diplomat, with access to the report for use in reconnaissance and intelligence operations for Mr. Haftar. An American company, TST Humanitarian Surveys, which was founded by Mr. Prince is controlled by a US lawyer, sold the plane to another company in Austria, partly owned by Mr. Prince, who sold it to Lancaster 6 in June 2019, told the diplomat with access to the report. According to the diplomat, the plane arrived in Libya days later.
The other two planes, including an Antonov An-26 cargo plane intended to transport helicopters, arrived in Jordan and did not fly to Libya, but were identified in the report as part of a broader plan to provide military assistance to Mr. . Haftar to send.
According to the diplomat and the former official with knowledge of the situation, there were also several collaborators of Mr. Prince involved. The operation was first reported by Bloomberg and the New York Times last year. Until now, UN investigators have Prince did not directly accuse him of being involved in the scheme.
Helicopter transaction
Using funds from a Dubai-based company and a cover story with a false plan for a geospatial survey in Jordan, the team later found three South African Aerospatial Gazelle helicopters and three Super Puma helicopters in South Africa. got. At least one of the helicopters was transported to Libya. The helicopters were purchased for a total of more than $ 13 million, a price that was above their market value and one that suggested profit was a major motive behind the operation.
“It’s basically a plan where they wanted to make money by acquiring weapons,” the former official said, knowing the situation.
“It’s basically a scheme where they wanted to make money by acquiring weapons.”
The role in the efforts of companies based in Dubai also highlights the close ties of Mr. Prince with the United Arab Emirates and his ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed. Mr. Prince has been linked to a series of mercenary efforts on behalf of the Emirates, including an effort to combat Somali pirates, according to a previous UN report. The UAE was also an important military pillar of Mr. Haftar, which sent air defenses, armed drones, ammunition and aircraft to support the military leader’s campaigns, according to several UN reports. According to the diplomat, Mr. Prince has been visiting Abu Dhabi for the past few weeks.
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According to the UN report, the diplomat accused Mr. Prince also accused of violating a UN Security Council resolution by failing to provide information on alleged violations of the arms embargo if the panel of experts contacted him about it.
In addition to the nomination of Mr. Prince in the report, the UN expert panel is expected to include Mr. Prince to refer separately to the United Nations Sanctions Committee, which will decide whether to impose an asset freeze or travel ban. implemented by individual countries, including the US, the diplomat said.
Write to Jared Malsin at [email protected]