In explaining its purpose, Prince stated: 'We are trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service.' After working with SEAL and SWAT teams, Blackwater USA received its first government contract following the bombing of USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in October 2000. History 1997: Blackwater USA īlackwater USA was formed on December 26, 1996, by Al Clark and Erik Prince in North Carolina, to provide training support to military and law enforcement organizations. Four employees were convicted in the United States but later pardoned on December 22, 2020, by President Donald Trump. In 2007, Blackwater received widespread notoriety for the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, when a group of its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20. In 2013, its subsidiary, International Development Solutions, received an approximately $92 million contract for U.S. Since 2003, it has provided services to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Īcademi and its predecessors provide contract security services to the United States federal government. In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings.

It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acquired by a group of private investors. Security management, full-service risk management consultingĪcademi, formerly known as Blackwater, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1996, by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. Law enforcement training, logistics, close quarter training, and security services

Blackwater sister