Doing business in Iraq is dangerous by any measure. But as a federal lawsuit filed last month highlights, companies working for the Iraqi government face an added risk: They might not get paid.
On July 20, Monongahela, Pa.-based Wye Oak Technology Inc. filed a $25 million breach-of-contract suit against the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The company was hired in 2004 for a range of projects, including refurbishing the Iraqi army’s Soviet-era tanks and collecting tons of scrap metal for resale. According to the complaint, after invoices totaling more than $24 million went unpaid, the company’s president, Dale Stoffel, traveled to Baghdad for a meeting with high-level Iraqi and U.S. officials, at which he was promised payment. En route to collect the money, he was shot and killed. Wye Oak continued its work under the contract, paying out of pocket, until it ran out of funding in mid-2005.
