A US appeals court has ruled against an attempt by Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility to avert prosecution over charges it defrauded the US Army in multibillion-dollar contracts. Agility was the largest supplier to the US Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq. Charges that it overcharged the Army over 41 months on $8.5 billion in supply contracts made the case politically sensitive in Washington and Kuwait.
The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta should allow the fraud case against Agility to proceed after more than a year of legal argument over whether the company was correctly served with an indictment by US prosecutors in 2009. The court dismissed the appeal by the company on procedural grounds. "We lack jurisdiction over this appeal and appellee's (government's) motion to dismiss the appeal is granted," said the court order signed July 12.