Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

Agility settles with U.S. government in food-supply overbilling dispute

Company to pay $95 million to settle civil charges.

Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility Logistics has settled with the U.S. government over alleged billing overcharges on multi-billion dollar food supply contracts with the Defense Department from 2003 to 2010.

Under terms of the civil settlement, Agility said it will make a $95 million cash payment. In the criminal portion of the case, Agility pled to a misdemeanor relating to one invoice valued at $551. The criminal settlement calls for Agility to pay $551, but carries with it no criminal charges, the company said.


The contracts covered nearly 200,000 invoices to the U.S. government, valued at $8.6 billion. The terms of the settlement are subject to final court approval.

The settlement allows Agility to resume its bidding on new U.S. government contracts, the company said. The U.S. government will remove Agility and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates from the list of suspended companies on its "System for Award Management" (SAM) database within 60 days, Agility said.

"Today's settlement removes uncertainty for investors and lenders, ends costly litigation, and opens a pipeline of potential government and commercial contracting opportunities," said Agility CEO Tarek Sultan in a statement.

Agility had been unable to bid on an undetermined number of commercial contracts because prospective customers were prevented from doing business with a company involved in a lawsuit with or against the U.S. government, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The Latest

More Stories

youngster checking shipping details on smartphone

Survey: older generations are unaware of holiday shipping deadlines

As holiday shoppers blitz through the final weeks of the winter peak shopping season, a survey from the postal and shipping solutions provider Stamps.com shows that 40% of U.S. consumers are unaware of holiday shipping deadlines, leaving them at risk of running into last-minute scrambles, higher shipping costs, and packages arriving late.

The survey also found a generational difference in holiday shipping deadline awareness, with 53% of Baby Boomers unaware of these cut-off dates, compared to just 32% of Millennials. Millennials are also more likely to prioritize guaranteed delivery, with 68% citing it as a key factor when choosing a shipping option this holiday season.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

shopper returning purchase with smartphone

E-commerce retailers brace for surge in returns

As shoppers prepare to receive—and send back—a surge of peak season e-commerce orders this month, returns will continue to pose a significant cost for the retail industry, with total returns projected to reach $890 billion in 2024, according to a report released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Happy Returns, a UPS company.

Measured over the entire year of 2024, retailers estimate that 16.9% of their annual sales will be returned. But that total figure includes a spike of returns during the holidays; a separate NRF study found that for the 2024 winter holidays, retailers expect their return rate to be 17% higher, on average, than their annual return rate.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot of agentic AI for logistics

HappyRobot lands $15.6 million backing for its agentic AI

San Francisco startup HappyRobot has gained $15.6 million in venture funding for its AI platform that automates the communication needs of freight brokerages and other logistics users such as third-party logistics providers and warehouses.

The “series A” round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Y Combinator and strategic industry investors, including RyderVentures. It follows an earlier, previously undisclosed, pre-seed round raised 1.5 years ago, that was backed by Array Ventures and other angel investors.

Keep ReadingShow less
forklift carrying goods through a warehouse

RJW Logistics gains private equity backing

RJW Logistics Group, a logistics solutions provider (LSP) for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, has received a “strategic investment” from Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire partners, and now plans to drive future innovations and expand its geographic reach, the Woodridge, Illinois-based company said Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company said that CEO Kevin Williamson and other members of RJW management will continue to be “significant investors” in the company, while private equity firm Mason Wells, which invested in RJW in 2019, will maintain a minority investment position.

Keep ReadingShow less
iceberg drawing to illustrate supply chain threats

GEP: six factors could change calm to storm in 2025

The current year is ending on a calm note for the logistics sector, but 2025 is on pace to be an era of rapid transformation, due to six driving forces that will shape procurement and supply chains in coming months, according to a forecast from New Jersey-based supply chain software provider GEP.

"After several years of mitigating inflation, disruption, supply shocks, conflicts, and uncertainty, we are currently in a relative period of calm," John Paitek, vice president, GEP, said in a release. "But it is very much the calm before the coming storm. This report provides procurement and supply chain leaders with a prescriptive guide to weathering the gale force headwinds of protectionism, tariffs, trade wars, regulatory pressures, uncertainty, and the AI revolution that we will face in 2025."

Keep ReadingShow less