Agility to lay off 1,000s

TROUBLED logistics firm Agility has started widespread layoffs of its staff. Nearly 600 have already been laid off this week and according to an anonymous official thousands more are in danger of having the same happen to them over the next few months.

The official said that the reasons for the sudden layoffs include predictions that new contracts will not be awarded to the company because of the economic downturn.

However, Agility’s decision may have more to do with the massive fraud case that the US military is bringing against it and which threatens it with up to US$180 million in fines if found guilty.

THE US Army and Kamal Mustafa Al-Sultan, the owner of a Kuwaiti company that originally partnered with Agility, trading under its old name of Public Warehousing Company (PWC), alleges that PWC, the Sultan Center Food Products Company (TSC) and PWC’s chief executive officer, Tarek Abbul Aziz Sultan Al-Essa (right), defrauded the US Army out of$60 million by knowingly overcharging for fruits and vegetables that PWC purchased through TSC. It is also alleged that PWC failed to disclose and pass through rebates and discounts it obtained from its US-based suppliers, as required by its contracts.