Senator John Kerry today pledged to press for further investigation of the tax practices of private security firm Blackwater USA.
"Blackwater is hiding behind the Bush administration to explain why they bilked [defrauded] the taxpayers out of millions of dollars," said the Massachusetts Democrat in a statement. "I intend to get to the bottom of this."
Blackwater Helicopter in Iraq
The company was accused on Monday of "significant tax evasion" by Republican Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
California Democrat Mr Kerry said Blackwater failed to withhold contributions from employees or pay to the government millions of dollars in mandatory Social Security retirement funds. He also alleged that it failed to make required payments for medical and unemployment benefits and related taxes.
In a letter to Blackwater chairman Erik Prince, Mr Waxman raised questions about the treatment of Blackwater personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan as contractors rather than employees.
Blackwater responded by saying that Mr Waxman was "incorrect" in asserting that the deployed personnel should be treated as employees for tax purposes.
Blackwater, which employs about 1,000 people in Iraq, has been mired in controversy since some of its security guards were involved in the shooting deaths of at least 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last month.