A leading Kuwaiti firm indicted for fraud in connection with multi-billion dollar contracts with the American army said Monday it is in talks with US authorities for an out-of-court settlement. "The company is negotiating with the US government for a settlement to the case," Public Warehousing Co (PWC), also known as Agility, said in a statement posted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange website.
"No deal has been struck so far and there are no guarantees that the negotiations will result in a settlement," the statement added. PWC, with 8.5 billion dollars worth of contracts to supply the US army in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan, was commenting on local press reports that said the company was on the verge of reaching an out-of-court deal.
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas said the company was likely to pay between 500 million and 600 million dollars if the two parties agreed to the settlement. Last month, a US grand jury indicted PWC on multiple counts for allegedly overbilling the Pentagon by illegally inflating prices of food supply contracts. PWC shares dropped three percent on Monday, while the Kuwait Stock Exchange Index was trading down 1.16 percent, just above the 7,000 point mark.