Iraq War Victims Allege Pharmaceutical Companies’ Bribery Led to U.S. Troop Deaths
October 17, 2017
Press Coverage
Big Pharma Funded Anti-US Militia in Iraq, US Veterans Allege in Lawsuit
October 18, 2017
The lawsuit alleges that five drug companies won contracts with the Iraqi government during the 2003 peak of the war with knowledge that free drugs and medical devices would end up in the hands of a Shiite militia. That militia would then sell the drugs and devices to the black market to fund its operations against the U.S. … More than 100 plaintiffs are included in the lawsuit.
Lawsuit: Big Pharma Funded Terrorism in Iraq with Payments to Corrupt Health Ministry
October 19, 2017
In the first years following the defeat of Saddam Hussein, there were few dark corners of battle-scarred Iraq less hospitable to Americans than the country’s ministry of health.…. Banners proclaimed “Death to America and Israel” and “we must destroy the occupiers.”… And yet at the same time, American and international pharmaceutical companies were regularly doing business with [the Iraqi Health Ministry].
Justice Dept. Investigating Claims That Drug Companies Funded Terrorism in Iraq
July 31, 2018
The Justice Department is investigating claims that major drug and medical device companies doing business in Iraq knew that the free medicines and supplies they gave the government to win business there would be used to underwrite terrorist attacks on American troops. … [AstraZeneca’s] filing said the inquiry was related to a lawsuit filed last year in federal court…
Families of Afghan War Dead Say Contractors Bribed Taliban
December 27, 2019
Families of almost 150 U.S. service members and civilians who were killed or wounded in terror attacks in Afghanistan sued a group of Western contractors involved in the nation’s reconstruction for allegedly bribing the Taliban for protection for years. The alleged payments ultimately helped finance a Taliban-led insurgency that led to the attacks in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017, according to a lawsuit … An employee of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul called such payments “organized crime”…
US Contractors Sued for Allegedly Paying ‘Protection Money’ to the Taliban in Afghanistan
December 27, 2019
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the “large Western companies” made protection payments to the Taliban because they had “lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests. … The suit alleges that the companies often opted to pay the Taliban rather than seek assistance from the U.S. military in order to maximize profits.
Gold Star Family Lawsuit Alleges Contractors in Afghanistan Funneled Money to the Taliban
December 27, 2019
The firms allegedly used a network of subcontractors and private security groups to transfer cash to Taliban agents, and in some cases dole out salaries to certain Taliban “guards” between 2006 and 2014, while the group was allying with al Qaeda and waging a violent campaign against US forces and their allies, according to the lawsuit. … In public statements for more than a decade, US officials have opposed the practice of making payments to warlords and other corrupt groups …
U.S., International Contractors Sued for Allegedly Paying Protection Money to Taliban
August 5, 2022
The Stockholm-based telecommunications company… faces claims from more than 500 U.S. service members and civilians who were victims of terrorist attacks and hostage takings from 2005 to 2021, along with the families of those killed in attacks. … The terror victims accused Ericsson of paying money to terrorist factions that controlled swaths of Iraq, in a bid to stop them from hampering its business. The financing ultimately aided a campaign of kidnapping, torture, bombing and murder, they said. … The suit follows Ericsson’s admission … that it had found “serious breaches of compliance rules” in Iraq, including evidence of corruption-related misconduct. … The money that Ericsson allegedly sent to terrorists in Iraq ultimately helped finance attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, the victims allege.
Standard Chartered Bank Helped Al Qaeda Buy Bomb Materials: Lawsuit
April 8, 2023
A New York-based bank helped finance Al Qaeda’s bomb-making operations in Afghanistan despite warnings from government officials, the families of two U.S. military members killed by the terror group claimed in a lawsuit. … The families claim the bank provided financial services to the Fatima Group in Pakistan despite knowing it was sending “an unending supply” of calcium ammonium nitrate — the primary component in IEDs — to Al Qaeda, according to the court filing. U.S. government officials met with senior bankers at Standard Chartered’s Manhattan office in 2013, to urge them to stop aiding the terrorist attacks, but the bank’s response was “utterly useless,” according to court papers. “Standard Chartered knowingly and wantonly sacrificed American lives to increase its own profits,” the Anti-Terrorism Act lawsuit alleges.
Qatar World Cup Construction Workers Sue U.S. Firm For Labor Trafficking
October 12, 2023
Dozens of Filipino workers who helped build stadiums that hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatarfiled a lawsuit … claiming U.S. construction firm Jacobs Solutions Inc (J.N) subjected them to dangerous and inhumane conditions. … The plaintiffs … claim Jacobs knew or should have known about human rights abuses in Qatar and chose to knowingly exploit workers. Jacobs and its subsidiaries are accused of violating a U.S. law that prohibits trafficked or forced labor even when the alleged conduct occurs outside the United States. The plaintiffs also accused Jacobs of negligence and unjust enrichment, among other claims. The nearly 40 plaintiffs … said Jacobs and several subsidiaries that oversaw the construction projects forced workers to live in cramped, dirty barracks and work up to 72 hours straight in blistering heat without food and water. The plaintiffs also claim they were not paid all of their wages and had their passports confiscated, barring them from finding new jobs or returning home to the Philippines.
Anti-Terrorism Litigators Are Optimistic About Their Field
February 26, 2025
Anti-terrorism litigation on the civil side takes the form of lawsuits for money damages brought by victims of terrorism or their survivors…. The vast majority of cases are brought under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. Passed in 2016, JASTA amended the Anti-Terrorism Act to allow victims of terrorist attacks or their families to sue not just terrorist groups—often impossible to locate, judgment-proof, or both—but anyone who “aids and abets” terrorists.
In passing JASTA, “Congress expressly stated that civil lawsuits brought by terrorism victims serve national security by deterring support of terrorism,” [Sparacino PLLC Partner Raj] Parekh explained…. So even though Parekh will now be pursuing multinational corporations rather than ISIS leaders, he sees what he’ll be doing at Sparacino as a continuation of his work as a prosecutor. “I’ve spent my prosecutorial career pursuing justice for victims and seeking to hold accountable those who threaten our national security,” he said. “It’s a rare opportunity to be at a law firm pursuing these goals in the private sector.”
Managing partner Ryan Sparacino launched the firm eight years ago this month, after seeing the market opportunity presented by JASTA’s creation of “secondary liability” for terrorism. He believes Parekh is joining at an exciting time for anti-terrorism litigation.
“The pace of ATA litigation is set to dramatically accelerate in the next 12 to 18 months, and 2025 will be our busiest year ever,” Sparacino told me. “We’ll be filing at least half a dozen major new terrorism lawsuits in the next six months.” And a number of these cases will be filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, making Parekh’s expertise as a senior federal prosecutor in that district especially valuable.
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