The U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York has dismissed a lawsuit against MTN Group Limited, a South African-based mobile telecom company, with a 30,000-plus tower portfolio across Africa and the Middle East, that claimed it paid protection money to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The suit claimed MTN protected Taliban fighters from detection by U.S. forces, according to Business Maverick newspaper. Several U.S. companies, all subsidiaries of London-based G4S Holdings International, were also named in the suit. MTN Group and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, MTN Dubai and MTN Afghanistan were listed as defendants in the case. A similar complaint has been filed against the company’s actions in Iran.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, on behalf of several hundred U.S. families, claimed the company paid Taliban officials not to attack its cell towers in Afghanistan, according to Bloomberg News. The G4S Holdings companies named in the lawsuit include Kansas-based Black & Veatch, Florida-based Centerra Group, Maryland-based DAI Global, Tennessee-based Janus Global Operations and Canada-based Louis Berger Group.
“During our time in Afghanistan, our professionals provided lawful services to – and at the direction of – our client, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),” said Steve Edwards, CEO, Black & Veatch, in a prepared statement, when the lawsuit was filed. “We have completed projects that more than doubled the amount of reliable power available to the country’s hospitals, schools, businesses and homes, under our contract with USAID.”
MTN may not be out of the woods just yet. Another civil lawsuit was filed in June of this year against the company and ZTE, claiming violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The suit was file on behalf of American service members and civilians, and their families, who were killed or wounded in Iraq between 2011 and 2016, according to a press release from MTN.
“In a federal lawsuit filed in New York, more than 50 Americans claim MTN and ZTE did business with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, even though they knew the transactions would help finance, arm and support the Iranian group’s terror campaign in neighboring Iraq. As a result, thousands of Americans were injured or killed between 2011 and 2016,” according to Bloomberg News.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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