But war is a messy business, and last week a landmine exploded under the Mozart Group.<\/p>\n
Andy Bain, a businessman in Kyiv since the 2000s and a former Marine, filed a lawsuit in Wyoming, where Mozart\u00a0is registered as a limited liability company, accusing Milburn of financial fraud, sexual misconduct, burglary, attempted bribery, avoidance of U.S. weapons-transfer regulations, and even threatening a retired American general. The lawsuit asks the court to remove Milburn from the company and order him to pay damages of more than $50,000. According to the suit from Bain\u00a0\u2014 who says he is the majority shareholder of Mozart \u2014 Milburn presided over the group \u201cin a manner which has caused senior Ukrainian military officers to remark \u2018can\u2019t he go home and stop saving our country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Milburn, reached for comment by The Intercept, described the suit\u2019s allegations as \u201ccompletely ridiculous.\u201d He added that he had \u201cplaced this matter in the hands of legal experts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last few decades of global warfare have seen a profusion of private military companies operating with little scrutiny and engaging in widespread abuses. The most notorious after 9\/11 was Blackwater, led by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince<\/a>, whose highly paid mercenaries \u2014 mostly retired U.S. service members \u2014 ran amok in Iraq and were implicated in war crimes there<\/a>, though Prince was not personally charged<\/a>. Wagner\u2019s troops<\/a> have been accused of atrocities in pretty much every war zone where they fight.<\/p>\n Mozart casts itself in a different mold, as it claims its members are unarmed<\/a> and help civilians in addition to soldiers; Milburn reacted <\/a>with public anger when an American magazine described him as a \u201cforeign fighter.\u201d Nonetheless, Mozart has found a unique way of marching into controversy.<\/p>\n A day after\u00a0Bain\u2019s lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0was filed, Milburn responded with a barrage of counter-accusations in posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. He\u00a0described Bain<\/a>\u00a0as Mozart\u2019s disgruntled former chief financial officer and said that Bain had been accused of financial and sexual misconduct. He also said Bain was \u201cheavily invested in Russia,\u201d which in wartime Ukraine is not a trivial accusation. And in a particularly surprising twist, Milburn even alleged that Bain had tried to sell Mozart to the Taliban. Milburn subsequently deleted those posts, though he told The Intercept he still stands by them.<\/p>\n \u201cI apologize for allowing this individual to be affiliated with the Mozart Group,\u201d Milburn wrote on Twitter. \u201cWe are reevaluating our vetting process and will not allow this to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Bain, asked to respond to Milburn\u2019s accusations, told The Intercept, \u201cI am not going to comment on pending litigation, but recent posts and comments ensure defamation will be a much larger part of the proceedings than originally envisioned.\u201d<\/p>\n The full story of what\u2019s happening inside Mozart is not yet known. While it’s not unusual for a startup\u2019s founding partners to have a falling out, it doesn\u2019t tend to happen in an active war zone.\u00a0And an intriguing subplot may involve an alleged effort to monetize Mozart\u2019s high-profile work in Ukraine by turning it into a private military company with global aspirations.<\/p>\n While Milburn consistently\u00a0presents Mozart as surviving off donations and being singularly devoted to saving Ukraine, the lawsuit accuses him of seeking military contracts in Armenia. That accusation does not seem unfounded: a recent article in Intelligence Online<\/a> reported that Mozart \u201cis now planning to become a conventional for-profit private military contractor (PMC) and expand into other war-torn areas.\u201d The article said Mozart\u2019s chief operating officer, former Marine officer Martin Wetterauer, confirmed it was \u201clooking for new clients in other locations in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever its outcome, the lawsuit calls into question the stability and credibility of what the New York Times described<\/a> a few months ago as \u201cone of the biggest private military companies in Ukraine.\u201d It seems certain to lend strength to Russia\u2019s vivid<\/a> criticisms<\/a> of not just Mozart but also the overall U.S. effort to aid Ukraine, as Mozart has been one of America\u2019s most visible citizen-led initiatives.<\/p>\n Ukrainians train during courses with the Mozart Group, in the Donetsk region on Sept. 22, 2022.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Juan Barreto\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n From its birth, Mozart has been intricately connected to Milburn, who describes himself as the group\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n A British-born American, Milburn retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 2019 after more than three decades of service that included deployments in Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan, most recently as deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Central, which plans special operations in the Middle East and Central Asia. He has written a memoir about his career, \u201cWhen the Tempest Gathers,\u201d and has contributed military-themed articles to publications including The Atlantic, USA Today, The Hill, and Task & Purpose.<\/p>\n\n He traveled to Kyiv as a freelance journalist within weeks of the Russian invasion in February, filing five stories<\/a> for Task & Purpose, a military website. His last story, published on April 2, was about a former Marine accused of rape in Ukraine, but that story was subsequently withdrawn and now carries an editor\u2019s note<\/a> that says it is \u201cundergoing editorial review for standards and practices and will be unavailable until the review is complete.\u201d Editors at Task & Purpose did not respond to messages from The Intercept about the editorial review; Milburn told The Intercept he stands by the story.<\/p>\n A day after that article was published, Milburn made what appears to be his first public mention of Mozart Group in an April 3 tweet<\/a> that said it \u201ccomprises former US SOF [special operations forces] personnel who deliver critically required capabilities to front line units in Ukraine. The Group\u2019s activities primarily consist of advising, training and equipping Ukraine SOF and Resistance units.\u201d A day after that, his first fundraising effort on PayPal raised the maximum allowed, $20,000, \u201cwithin hours,\u201d he tweeted<\/a>; half of the total, $10,000<\/a>, came from a military contractor, Obsidian Solutions Group. Two weeks later, Milburn explained in an article for Newsweek<\/a> that his work for Task & Purpose seemed \u201cfrivolous\u201d with a war raging around him, so he decided to organize military training after people \u201cwho I knew from previous visits, who are now in the Ukrainian military, asked me for help.\u201d<\/p>\n With U.S. military personnel largely staying out of the country and U.S. diplomats departing in the early days of Russia\u2019s invasion, Milburn attracted a considerable amount of media attention: He was one of the few Americans on the ground with combat experience who was working with the Ukrainian military and willing to talk with journalists. He has been interviewed frequently on cable and broadcast TV, especially CNN<\/a> and ABC<\/a>, while major newspapers in the U.S.<\/a>, U.K.<\/a>, and France<\/a> have published articles about him. A New York Times profile bore the headline, \u201cAn American in Ukraine Finds the War He\u2019s Been Searching For<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n None of these stories hinted at the accusations Bain has now lodged against Milburn.<\/p>\n Bain announced his 12-page lawsuit in a LinkedIn post<\/a> last week that challenged Milburn\u2019s self-portrayal as Mozart\u2019s founder. \u201cAt the outset of the war,\u201d Bain wrote, \u201chaving lived in Kyiv near on 30 years and recognizing Ukraine\u2019s dire need for basic military training, I contacted a retired U.S. Marine general friend asking if he knew anyone who could come develop training. He put me in contact with Andy Milburn, who came to Ukraine a few weeks later.\u201d According to Bain\u2019s post, \u201cI registered, named and arranged financing to launch the Mozart Group with a goal of providing training and support as needed for the war.\u201d<\/p>\n Bain\u2019s LinkedIn post states that he owns 51 percent of the shares in Mozart Group, while Milburn owns 49 percent. In response to a request from The Intercept for documentation, Bain provided three pages from a 35-page \u201cOperating Agreement\u201d for Mozart. One of the pages shows a chart that attributes 51 percent of the company\u2019s \u201cunits\u201d to Bain and 49 percent to Milburn.<\/p>\n While Bain has not previously publicized his ownership of Mozart \u2014 it is not disclosed on the group\u2019s website and has not been mentioned by Milburn \u2014 there is a public record of the two men collaborating. On April 10, they started a YouTube channel called \u201cTwo Marines in Kyiv<\/a>,\u201d which now hosts seven videos, most of which feature discussions between them. The channel\u2019s \u201cAbout\u201d page describes Milburn as CEO of the Mozart Group and Bain as president of Ukrainian Freedom Fund, which according to its website<\/a> is a nongovernmental organization that has raised more than $3 million since February for military and humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n Bain\u2019s most serious allegations revolve around Milburn\u2019s handling of donated money \u2014 what the suit describes as efforts to \u201cfacilitate the diversion of funds away from Mozart Group LLC.\u201d The lawsuit alleges that Milburn was \u201cinsisting on personal compensation payments exceeding $35,000 per month from company accounts \u2026 and not accounting to the company for donated funds received which were received in personal or other accounts controlled by him.\u201d At least some of Milburn\u2019s personal fundraising was not hidden from donors: His social media solicitations<\/a> for donations<\/a> have included clear links<\/a> to his Venmo and PayPal accounts, which he said was necessary because Mozart\u2019s donation platform was not working at the time, possibly due to Russian interference. But until Bain\u2019s suit, he had not been accused of misusing funds deposited into those or other accounts he controlled.<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t all, however. According to the suit, Milburn hired as his personal assistant a woman he met on a social media dating site and had a relationship with, paying her an annual salary of $90,000, which according to the suit was \u201cat least four times more\u201d than the going rate. The suit further alleges that Milburn made \u201cunwanted sexual advances and propositions to a female office manager.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit even accuses Milburn of \u201corchestrating and participating\u201d in the burglary of a warehouse leased by Bain\u2019s Ukrainian Freedom Fund. In addition, it claims Milburn was intoxicated and broke Kyiv\u2019s curfew, leading to his temporary detention by Ukrainian authorities on more than one occasion. And according to the suit, Milburn sent \u201chostile and caustic messages\u201d to\u00a0a retired commanding general of U.S. Special Operations Command Europe after the general declined to join Mozart (the retired general was not named). Milburn\u2019s conduct, the suit added, exasperated senior Ukrainians.<\/p>\n \u201cDefendant Milburn is now commonly referred to by Ukrainian military leadership as the \u2018Crazy American,\u2019\u201d it alleges.<\/p>\n The post U.S. Military Vets in Ukraine Are Fighting Each Other in Court<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amid accusations of fraud and sexual misconduct, the founders of the high-profile Mozart Group are waging a personal war back home.<\/p>\n The post U.S. Military Vets in Ukraine Are Fighting Each Other in Court<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[383,340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963678,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963677\/revisions\/963678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn06.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-1243434738.jpg\")
\nFrom\u00a0Iraq\u00a0to\u00a0Ukraine<\/h2>\n
\u201cCrazy American\u201d<\/h2>\n