Erik Prince

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Erik Prince (2015)

Erik Dean Prince (born June 6, 1969 in Holland, Michigan ) is an American entrepreneur. He is a former United States Navy SEAL and founder and former CEO of the mercenary company Blackwater USA (now part of Constellis Holdings under the name Academi ). He was CEO and later Chairman until 2009 before Blackwater was sold to a group of investors in 2010.

Youth and career

Prince was born in Holland, Michigan . His parents are Edgar D. Prince and Elsa Broekhuizen. They owned the Prince Corporation, a large auto parts and engineering company. Prince is the youngest of four children. Both parents are of Dutch descent (the family name, Prins, has been changed to English Prince).

Prince graduated from Holland Christian High School and obtained his pilot's license when he was 17. After high school, he attended the US Naval Academy , which he left after three semesters to graduate from Hillsdale College in 1992.

In 1990, Prince secured an internship at the lower level of the White House under George HW Bush . He later interned with Dana Rohrabacher , a Republican MP from California. At the age of 21, Prince claimed to have been involved in the search for a mass grave in Nicaragua as a volunteer to publicize killings under President Daniel Ortega. He later stated in an interview in Men's Journal that he had found "... a mass grave: bones protruding from the ground, hands tied at the wrists with wire".

After college, Prince attended officers' school and joined the United States Navy in 1992 .

In 1997, Prince moved to Virginia Beach . Here he and Al Clark founded the security company Blackwater USA (later Blackwater Worldwide, subsequently renamed Xe Services and Academi in 2011 ) with the aim of offering military training to members of the army and law enforcement agencies. With part of his inherited fortune from the Prince Corporation , he bought 24 square kilometers of the Great Dismal Swamp , a swamp area on the border between the states of North Carolina and Virginia , where he had an extensive training ground built. The company name "Blackwater" refers to the area's waters, which are dark in color due to the high peat content of the soil.

family

Prince's father, Edgar D. Prince, founded the Prince Machine Corporation, an automotive supplier, in 1965. Business did well and Prince began investing part of the profits in shopping malls and other types of auto parts through the Prince Group. So he created a network of companies and real estate. The asset was valued at $ 1 billion. In the early 1970s, the company patented a sun visor that could brighten up. When the company was sold in the 1990s, it was producing 20,000 pieces a day.

In 1995, after the death of his father, Erik took over the company, which he sold for $ 1.35 billion in 1996. Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos , United States Secretary of Education and former Michigan Republican chairman and wife of former Alticor ( Amway ) president and gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos.

Prince has seven children. His wife Joan died of cancer in June 2003. His youngest son, Charles Donovan, was named after William J. Donovan .

Prince is married for the second time. He has lived in Abu Dhabi since August 2010 . According to reports from ORF, Erik Prince has lived in Eisenstadt (Austria) since March 2012. After Prince was never to be found in Eisenstadt, according to the authorities, the main residence was deregistered. In March 2013 it was announced that Prince has now registered a main residence in Neusiedl am See in a rented terraced house.

Blackwater

Prince attributes the decision to found Blackwater to the genocide in Rwanda .

Since 1997, the company has received over $ 1.6 billion in unclassified state contracts and an unknown number of classified contracts. It became the largest of the three private security companies commissioned by the State Department , providing 987 guards for embassies and bases abroad.

Since 2001, Blackwater and its affiliates have received up to $ 600 million in classified contracts from the Central Intelligence Agency . The Obama administration awarded the company a US State Department security contract for $ 120 million in 2010 and new contracts worth approximately $ 100 million from the CIA.

Prince resigned as Managing Director of Blackwater on March 2, 2009 and remained Chairman of the Board.

In December 2010, Prince Xe Services including the training center in North Carolina sold to a group of investors and left the company.

Lobbying and philanthropy

Prince is Vice President of the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation , a charity which, according to the Internet magazine Salon.com , donated at least $ 670,000 and $ 531,000, respectively, to the Christian conservative institutions Family Research Council and Focus on the Family between July 2003 and July 2006. The foundation is also a major sponsor of Calvin College, a Christian institution in Grand Rapids , Michigan . Prince is also a board member of Christian Freedom International, a human rights organization that claims to work for persecuted Christians. He financed the film The Stoning of Soraya M.

Since 1998, Prince has donated over $ 200,000 to the Republican Party and third parties. Together with the beverage manufacturer Bolthouse Farms and its foundation, Prince also donated to the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian nonprofit organization that fights against same-sex marriages and abortions .

In 2006, Prince turned money over to the Green Party in Lucerne County, Pennsylvania, though it was interpreted as an attempt to help former Republican Senator Rick Santorum by supporting the more liberal alternative to Democratic challenger Bob Casey.

Erik Prince shared with his father a preference for positions of the Christian right and converted to Catholicism . Politically, this is noticeable, for example, in the financial support for right-wing Catholic fringe groups. Also, the leadership of Prince's security company Xe is largely made up of Catholics with politically similar views. A prominent example here is Joseph Schmitz, a member of the Roman Catholic Order of Malta , who before his time at Xe (or Blackwater Worldwide) was Inspector General in the United States Department of Defense and there because of serious deficiencies in the practice of awarding contracts under his supervision and criticism, according to which he abused his position to undermine the separation of church and state, came under political pressure and ultimately resigned.

In addition, Erik Prince, like his parents, is suspected of belonging to the right-wing secret society Council for National Policy , in which hundreds of powerful conservatives are supposed to meet three times a year to discuss how the USA can be steered further to the right.

Relationship with the media

Prince was considered a public shy. As a result, interview requests were frequently rejected. During public appearances, the press was asked not to publish any photos of Prince. Confidentiality clauses also required former Blackwater executives not to disclose any information about Prince.

Since the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, in which Blackwater workers shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians, and subsequent investigations by the FBI , Prince has appeared in public more frequently. Among other things, he had to comment on various allegations before the US Congress .

Disclosure as a member of a secret CIA task force

Prince claims to have been a member of a secret CIA task force killing terrorists. The Intelligence Service of the Congressional Committee in the White House released its name to the press. Prince compared himself to Valerie Plame, the goal of a similar data transfer by the government (see Plame affair ):

“Valerie Plame's identity was abused for political reasons. [Even] a special prosecutor was appointed. But what happened to me was worse. People who became active for political reasons not only made the existence of a very sensitive program public, but also made my name public. "

After Blackwater

In January 2011, the Associated Press reported that Prince had assumed a new role in training 2,000 Somalis for anti-pirate operations in the Gulf of Aden. According to reports, the program is funded by several Arab countries. This includes the United Arab Emirates with support from the United States. Prince spokesman Mark Corallo said that Prince was "not playing a financial role" in the project and declined to answer any questions about Prince's involvement. The Somali troops are also reported to be pursuing a warlord who supports Islamists.

The Associated Press quotes John Burret of the Maritime Underwater Security Consultants: “34 countries with naval forces are trying to stop piracy and it can only be stopped on land. I believe that with Prince's background and his rather illustrious reputation, success is possible. "

He has had prototypes of paramilitary fighter jets developed since 2014. The agricultural aircraft that had been converted by an Austrian company were presented at an Asian arms fair in February 2016; a planned sale to South Sudan had failed.

Prince now runs a Hong Kong-based company called Frontier Service Group . During the 2016 election campaign, Prince pleaded in an interview with Stephen Bannon published by Breitbart in favor of a new version of Operation Phoenix to eliminate ISIS. According to Jeremy Scahill, who relies on an unnamed informant, he advised Trump on his personnel selection and on statements on intelligence and military issues.

In April 2017, it was announced that Prince met with an envoy from Russian President Putin in the Seychelles for a multi-day meeting on January 11 . The meeting was apparently mediated by the United Arab Emirates . Observers believe that Prince should establish an unofficial channel of communication with Moscow for the Trump administration and inquire whether Putin might be willing to give up Russia's connection with Iran in the Syrian civil war .

literature

  • Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater. The rise of the most powerful private army in the world. (Translated from English, Blackwater - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. 2007, by Bernd Jendricke and Rita Seuß) Verlag Antje Kunstmann, Munich 2008 ISBN 978-3-88897-512-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jim Schaefer, ML Elrick, Todd Spangler: Ready for battle. In: The Detroit Free Press, October 7, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b c Suzanne Simons: Master of War. Harper Collins, 2009.
  3. ↑ Marc Pitzke: White-Collar Mercenary Under Fire In: Der Spiegel from October 3, 2007.
  4. ^ A b Robert Young Pelton: An American Commando in Exile. In: Men's Journal. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010 ; Retrieved June 3, 2011 .
  5. ↑ a b The Virginian-Pilot: Blackwater's top brass ( Memento from May 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on hamptonroads.com from July 24, 2006.
  6. ↑ The Man Behind Blackwater. In: Newsweek. of October 23, 2007, pp. 36-39.
  7. ^ A b Robert Young Pelton: Licensed to kill: hired guns in the war on terror. Crown Publishers, New York 2006, ISBN 1-4000-9781-9 .
  8. ↑ a b Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince , Dan Fletcher, TIME Magazine, August 6, 2009
  9. ^ Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy In: Vanity Fair from January 2010.
  10. ↑ Erik Prince is said to have lived in Eisenstadt. Retrieved March 21, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Multi-billionaire registered in Neusiedl. In: burgenland.orf.at. February 28, 2013, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  12. ↑ [1]
  13. ↑ a b Warren P. Strobel: Obama spares Blackwater on Sudan violations . In: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , June 28, 2010. 
  14. ↑ Kim Sengupta: Blackwater founder to sell up as criticism takes its toll . In: The Independent , June 9, 2010. 
  15. ↑ Kim Sengupta: Blackwater founder to sell up as criticism takes its toll . In: The Independent , June 9, 2010. 
  16. ↑ [2] (PDF)
  17. ↑ Investor group buys security company Blackwater In: Tages-Anzeiger of December 17, 2010.
  18. ^ Former Blackwater Purchased by Investors ( December 21, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ) In: Time Magazine, December 17, 2010.
  19. ^ Blackwater Founder in Deal to Sell Company . In: The New York Times , December 16, 2010. 
  20. ↑ Ben Van Heuvelen: The Bush administration's ties to Blackwater In: Salon of October 2, 2007.
  21. ↑ [3]
  22. ^ Sarah Posner: The Legal Muscle Leading the Fight to End the Separation of Church and State ( Memento of August 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Washington Spectator Online. dated April 1, 2007.
  23. ^ Suzanne Simons: Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War . Harper, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-165135-9 , pp. 253 .
  24. ↑ Mike Barker, AP, Testimony Lifts Veil on Blackwater Boss October 2, 2007.
  25. ↑ a b Andrew Malcolm: Grilled Blackwater chairman a major GOP donor ( Memento of October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Baltimore Sun of October 4, 2007.
  26. ↑ Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater. The rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army. Nation Books, New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-56025-979-4 , pp. 79 and 365 ff.
  27. ↑ Dennis Kirstein: America's Terror Crusade: Wars, Torture, and Human Rights Abuses in the 21st Century. Books on Demand, 2008, p. 129.
  28. ↑ Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater. The rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army. Nation Books, New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-56025-979-4 , pp. 78-81.
  29. ↑ a b c Notorious Mercenary Erik Prince Is Advising Trump From the Shadows , Jeremy Scahill , The Intercept , January 17, 2017
  30. ↑ Erik Prince appears at Jon Stewart's
  31. ↑ a b [4]
  32. ↑ [5]
  33. ↑ Der Standard : Founder of the mercenary company Blackwater built private air forces over companies in Wiener Neustadt on April 11, 2016.
  34. ↑ Blackwater Founder Erik Prince's Three-Point Plan to Destroy Islamic State , Dan Riehl, Breitbart.com, July 27, 2016
  35. ↑ Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung / washingtonpost.com of April 3, 2017: "Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel"
  36. ↑ FAZ.net May 27, 2017: Did Jared Kushner want a secret channel to the Kremlin?
personal data
SURNAME Prince, Erik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prince, Erik Dean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Holland (Michigan)