I will try my best to explain who got rich off the 20 years of war by the USA in Afghanistan. Firstly on August 15th 2021, the Taliban took over Kabul after taking over every other part of Afghanistan. This meant the war ended as it began with the Taliban being in power once again. For a glance into the greed here, while afghans were trying to escape their country. Erik prince an American business man offered such flights to the afghans at the cost of $6,500 per person and this wasn't the first time he tried to get rich off the war. Moving ahead, after so much research we were able to develop the list of some people who got crazy rich off the war.
Before we get into the list. It's important to explain the term "Government contractor". So due to the free market nature of America. Instead of the government to handle all the aspects of war, it hires a lot of private contractors. These private contractors handle tasks like building and designing aircrafts and other military ware, feed the troops, provide fuel for machinery and literally fight the wars. So an example to explain this better is that the government can post a job saying the need someone to build a road in Afghanistan. Then a bunch of private companies come together and bid for the job. The company with the best price wins as the goal of the system is to help the government get the best price for any project the want done. But then doing war time, this bidding process is thrown out of the window as it's regarded as a time of emergency. In this situation, once the government want anything done, the just assign it to any company the find fit automatically and any amount the name is given to them. This process is what private companies use to drain alot of money from the government. Having explained all this we can get into the list. First we have Robert Stevens
He is the former CEO of Lockheed Martin. The produce black hawk helicopters, missiles, fighter jets, bombs etc. This company gets alot of business from the Pentagon, in 2020 alone the got over $75 billion worth of contracts. So much that 90% of their revenue comes from government contracts. Robert Stevens became CEO in 2004, so as the war intensified so did Roberts wallet. Being a public company, we could easily access their financial records. So before the war, he was making around $2 million per year including his salary bonus. As the war started his salary remained fairly the same but his bonuses alone now jumps to $3.6 million bringing his total earnings to about $5 million for 2005. One year later in 2006, his earnings jump to $18 million. The next year 2007, he earned almost $31 million and it goes on in such trend. Which clearly shows that the war was very profitable for him. Next on the list we have Stephen Orenstein.
His company, supreme group was contracted on 2005 to feed the military in Afghanistan. Since the contract, the company business increased in 50 folds. Within a time frame of 6 years, the United States government paid them $5.5 billion to deliver food to the troops. Evidently this because 90% of business the company handled at that time. Orenstein manipulated the nature of the contract doing war times and ridiculously priced his food as the contracts kept coming no matter the price. Not only did he over price his foods, he went further to create fake sub companies and won contracts for doing exactly nothing and the Pentagon still paid. This is exactly how he got super rich off the war to the extent that he became a billion. Eventually he took it too far and got caught. An investigation and hearing was carried out, during which it was found out that the pantagon over paid $100 million just on transportation costs. During the hearing the reps of the Pentagon implied that the weren't really paying attention to this due to the ongoing war. Finally Steven had to refund $389 million which is a slap on the wrist. Next in the list is the earlier mentioned Erik prince.
He is an ex navy seal who inherited some money and decide to start his own private security company called "black water". Normally he trains security and police forces. He got his first contract in 2000 worth $204000 to help train the navy for terrorist attacks. Then 9/11 happened and opened a great opportunity for black water. The government being in need contracted black water for jobs like military training, CIA premises security, excort of diplomats etc. Note that the are meant to be just security guards but the US government hired them and sent them to war like legit soliders making them mercenaries. By 2007 the government had given black waters over $1 billion worth of federal contracts. This posed a real danger which became eveident in 2007 when the opened fire on unarmed civilians in iraq at a public square after a car bomb exploded a mile away. The kill 17 Iraqis and injured 20 more. Due to this black water lost their contract and there was some form of accountability. Yet Erik prince sold the company and came out on top. The guilty security guards were tried and convicted but then the were completely pardoned by Donald trump. Next up we have David packouz and Efraim diveroli.
Nick named the war dogs. The were aged 21 and 25 when the started an ammunition company. The bid the Pentagon and won a $300 million contract. This contract was to supply the afghan military with guns and ammunition. The were super young at this time and David was a massage therapist before starting the company. After this the became super rich living in fancy apartments in Miami and having fancy cars. Meanwhile the were buying ammo from china and selling it to the US government which is a giant No-No in arms trading. Eventually the were caught and pleaded guilty which lead to one of them being sentenced to 4 years. We also have to note this didn't happen to supreme foods or Robert probably because the were very wealthy and had influence so the were able to weasel their way out of accountability. What this story actually shows you is how easy it was to cash in on the Pentagon during this time. Next up we have Fahim hashimy
He is one of the several afghan nationals who got super rich. In the early days of the afghan war there was a huge need for local fixers, translators and bunch load of local services. So Fahim started a business which later turned to a media corporation, a construction company and even an airline. His companies started racking $200 million per year in government contracts. Next up we have the American congress.
This is because members of Congress can buy stocks in defence companies like Lockheed Martin and alot of them do. About 47 members of Congress and their spouses hold more than $2 million worth of stocks in top defense companies. This is nonpartisan. Of the 36 house members who hold stocks in private security companies. 20 are republicans and 16 are democrats. Going into details for who owns the most stocks we have senator Kevin hern, a republican from Oklahoma. He owns over a million dollars in stock from defence contractors, $800,000 alone in Honeywell which is an aerospace contractor that congress seems to love. I even gets worse when we look into people like senator Gary peters, a democrat from Michigan. He is a member of the arms services committee. He is also invested in alot of defense contractors and the list goes on and on showing how congress members are big investors in defence contractors who the approve money for.
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