95:, a man sent over by the U.S. Government to help with overseeing some of the project, recalls that "there hadn't been any follow up on medical care. People were walking around intoxicated on pain relievers with unwrapped wounds and there were a lot of infections… The idea that there was any hygiene seemed ridiculous. I'm not sure they were even bathing." Many of the workers face the same obstacle of not being able to leave due to the debt that they are in from paying the fee to work, or not having any form of transportation out of Iraq. After being asked about the mistreatment of the labor force in 2005, general manager al-Absi threatened to sue if any of the allegations against First Kuwaiti were published. In response to the allegations of the mistreatment,
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passports collected. Several months before that hearing, the nongovernmental research group CorpWatch had reported, based on interviews with former officers and employees of First
Kuwaiti, that the company was deceiving workers, confiscating their passports, and mistreating them on the job. Furthermore, it was discovered that not only are the workers being forced to endure this treatment, their living environment, nutrition, and health care system are of extremely poor quality.
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and Kuwait at wages as much as four times their current salaries, only to be flown into Iraq and forced into work there. In addition, some laborers were charged arbitrary fees (ranging from $ 1000 to $ 1800) just for the opportunity to work elsewhere, to also be flown into Iraq and have their
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According to the WSJ, Mayberry only worked on the embassy construction project for five days prior to being fired for failure to demonstrate the proper training and credentials for his work as an on-site medic.
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in 2008, alleging that First
Kuwaiti had billed falsely for deficient work in relation to the embassy, and that it retaliated against him for actions taken to pursue his claim. The
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736 million. The United States officials in charge of the project were said to have been pleased with the work FKTC had done on the embassy.
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reiterated that the False Claims Act "does not punish honest mistakes or incorrect claims submitted through mere negligence".
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The company has received substantial criticism, both for the physical quality of its work, and for allegations of
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30:, is a construction company founded in 1996 by Wadih al-Absi and Mohammed Maaraf which has been engaged by the
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104:(WSJ) investigated his employment and criminal history writing, "Extensive police and court records from
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without a license and for various Oregon state infractions as a “crematory operator”, records show."
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Transcripts of testimony before the
Oversight Committee on allegations against * First Kuwaiti
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show that
Mayberry has a string of convictions going back to the mid-1980s, including two for
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United States ex rel. Owens v. First
Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co.
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which came to light in testimony given by former First
Kuwaiti employees to an
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in 2004. The embassy was officially completed on May 12, 2008, at the cost of
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granted summary judgment to the company, due to lack of evidence of
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Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1996
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195:"U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Declared Ready, With Nudge by Rockets"
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Mayberry's testimony was later called into question after the
327:"Tarnished Witness in Iraqi Kidnapped-Labor Allegations"
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United States Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,
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First
Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company
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Construction and civil engineering companies of Kuwait
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220:"Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq"
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District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia
124:. In 2004, before heading off to Iraq to work as a
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302:"Complaints Mount at US Fortress in Iraq"
247:"Oversight Hearing on US Embassy in Iraq"
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218:Kessler, Glenn (2007-07-05).
193:Kessler, Glenn (2008-04-18).
24:First Kuwaiti Trading Company
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136:technician, and sometimes
245:Lee, Jesse (2007-07-26).
32:United States government
331:The Wall Street Journal
68:United States Congress
152:False Claims Act Case
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283:. CorpWatch
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60:labor abuse
384:Categories
372:(requires
312:2008-05-17
287:2007-09-09
262:2007-07-29
231:2007-07-29
204:2010-05-02
180:References
116:, one for
110:California
138:mortician
132:manager,
349:Casetext
142:embalmer
118:burglary
86:jobs in
158:qui tam
114:forgery
66:of the
106:Oregon
74:, the
36:Kuwait
170:fraud
134:radio
126:medic
88:Dubai
84:China
72:India
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