Blackwater Worldwide put up for sale

WASHINGTON — Burdened by lawsuits, criminal investigations and negative publicity stemming from its private security work in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater Worldwide is being put up for sale, the company has announced.

Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe Services and brought in new management last year to remake its image, is pursuing a sale in part because that overhaul has failed to change perceptions, most critically inside government, which is its main customer.

Blackwater founder Erik Prince, a former member of the Navy SEALs and heir to an automotive fortune, said in a statement late Monday that making the decision to sell the company was difficult, but that he no longer wanted to deal with the intense criticism the business has faced.

"Performance doesn't matter in Washington, just politics," Prince said.

A separate statement from the company's headquarters, in Moyock, N.C., said, "Xe's new management team has made significant changes and improvements to the company over the last 15 months, which have enabled the company to better serve the U.S. government and other customers, and will deliver additional value to a purchaser."

In March, Xe Services sold its aviation division, Presidential Airways, to AAR, based in Illinois. Among the company's largest remaining assets is the 7,000-acre compound it operates at its headquarters, which includes shooting ranges, driving courses and other facilities for military and law-enforcement training.

The effort to sell the company comes in the wake of intense legal scrutiny of its past management.

Five former Blackwater executives, including its past president, Gary Jackson, who had served as Prince's most trusted lieutenant, were indicted in April on federal weapons charges.

Separately, the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into whether Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government officials to continue to operate in Iraq after a 2007 shooting involving Blackwater guards in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed. Manslaughter charges against five of the guards were dismissed last year, but the Justice Department is appealing the decision.