Kyrgyzstan 2001

The story of contractor Ultra Services begins in September 2001 at an unlikely event: a wedding.

IPSOTEL

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Founded: April 2000
Locations: based in Moscow, Russia
Note: IPSOTEL conducted business in many locations including: Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, India and Egypt
Key Personnel:
John Dawkins -- General Director. Backed by a German financier
Others
http://www.ipsotel.com

Geoff Nordloh (informally the Chief Financial Officer of Ultra Services) attended the wedding of a friend and fellow Princeton University alum, Glen Lockwood and his fiancée Sasha, in Kyrgyzstan at a former Soviet Pioneer Camp owned by Sasha’s family on Lake Issyk-Kul. The wedding was followed by several days of hiking and backpacking in the nearby Tien-Shan mountains.

On the morning of September 11^th, as the secluded wedding guests enjoyed their stay in the mountains, four airplanes were simultaneously hijacked — two flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon, the last, into the ground, its remains spread over rural Pennsylvania.² The wedding guests would first hear of the attacks from a passing group of French day-hikers.

One of Glen Lockwood’s wedding guests was John Dawkins, a man who immediately stood out with a “very colorful personality” Charming and charismatic, Dawkins would quickly engage new acquaintances by sharing his thoughts and experiences, suggesting local restaurants to visit or avoid, and offering to show people around.

Stratex Inc. - US

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Founded: May 1998
Locations: Delaware
Key Personnel:
Founded by relatives of Ramil Mullayanov, a citizen of Uzbekistan

Stratex Freedom Services DP - Uzbekistan

Founded: late 2001
Locations: Uzbekistan
Note: Founded as a legal subsidiary or "daughter company" of Stratex Inc. John Dawkins made an initial investment in the new company. He was later forced out by the Uzbek partners in 2002. The company formally split with the American partners in July of 2003. After the split, the Americans discovered close to $75,000 of missing inventory on the books.
Key Personnel:
Ramil Mullayanov -- citizen of Uzbekistan
Naum "Neil" Emilfarb -- citizen of Uzbekistan
John Dawkins -- initial investor and 25% owner
Glen H. Lockwood -- General Director
Geoff Nordloh -- CFO

Stratex Freedom Services -- Kabul, Afghanistan

Founded: 2003 Locations: Kabul, Afghanistan
Note: Formed from the split of Stratex Freedom Services DP
Key Personnel:
Ramil Mullayanov -- citizen of Uzbekistan
Naum "Neil" Emilfarb -- citizen of Uzbekistan
http://www.stratex-fs.com/ru
http://www.stratex-fs.com

An American businessman working in the Central Asia region, John Dawkins first met Glen Lockwood during the 1990’s while working in the Russian Far East. Lockwood had worked for various US State Department and non-governmental organizations in the region, including The Eurasia Foundation. According to his bio on the Ultra Services website, Dawkins, who graduated from the University of California in International Relations and Economics, with a minor in Russian, also “lobbied for and managed the permitting process for the $22 billion Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia.”³

Since the signing of Production Sharing Agreements in the mid 1990’s, Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East had become a significant attraction to international oil and gas development. Today, Exxon Neftegas Limited (a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation) is one of the participants in the international consortium of the Sakhalin-1 Project.⁴

Moscow 2001 – Best Laid Plans

At the time of Glen Lockwood’s wedding in 2001, Dawkins was part owner and General Director of IPSOTEL, a technology company based in Moscow. IPSOTEL offered “voice and Internet services to Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, India and Egypt.”⁵

A creative entrepreneur, Dawkins was talented in identifying a need and then fulfilling that need by pairing highly skilled people with challenging projects. After their wedding, Lockwood and his new wife Sasha planned to move to Moscow, where he would go to work for Dawkins and IPSOTEL.

Fate had other plans.

With no formal explanation, Russian authorities denied Lockwood entrance into the country, sending him instead back to Kyrgyzstan. Speculation was that Lockwood’s long tenure in the Russian Far East, as well as his work with the US State Department office in the sensitive area of Tomsk⁶, had led Russian Security Services to unfairly tag Lockwood as a potential spy.

Uzbekistan 2001 – Supporting the Troops

Within weeks of the wedding in Kyrgyzstan, the United States, in response to the attacks of September 11^th, moved forces into Central Asia. With the possibility of working in Moscow no longer an option, Lockwood joined Dawkins to visit the newly leased⁷ Karshi-Khanabad (K2)⁸ base in Uzbekistan. The two initially approached the US Army offering to set up an IPSOTEL Internet café for American soldiers. The café would be built locally using pre-fabricated shipping containers. However, when the time came to complete the contract, the US Army no longer needed the Internet services of IPSOTEL. But the Army was in need of pre-fabricated buildings like the ones the local Uzbek partners could deliver.

Glen Lockwood went to work with Dawkins’ local Uzbek partners, Ramil Mullayanov and Naum “Neil” Emilfarb. The new business venture, now specializing in containerized buildings, was called Stratex Freedom Services DP. Through his initial investment, Dawkins owned 25% of the company.

From a legal standpoint, Stratex Freedom Services DP was originally a company registered in Uzbekistan. Officially, as translated from the Russian — a ‘daughter-company’ — from a Delaware company [owned by family of a Uzbek partner], called Stratex Inc.

Initially, Stratex Freedom Services DP was a locally registered company. Some time in September of ‘02, we registered Stratex Freedom Services LLC, in Delaware, so that we would actually have a more legitimate company presence in the United States. One that was not primarily controlled by the local partners. – Geoff Nordloh

Stratex Freedom Services LLC - US

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Founded: September 2002 Locations: Delaware
Note: Stratex Freedom Services LLC was created to give a more legitimate American presence to the company and as a result of ongoing tensions with the Uzbeki partners at Stratex Freedom Services DP. Stratex Freedom Services LLC had several legal subsidiaries registered in Uzbekistan. The company would later change its name to TFI International LLC in July 2003. The company initially subsidized part of Charles Phillips' salary as well as made an investment of $50,000 to Ultra Services.
Key Personnel:
Glen H. Lockwood - CEO
Geoff Nordloh - CFO
Frank Edgerly - joined in late 2002
http://www.freedom-services.com

TFI International LLC

Founded: July 2003 Locations: Delaware
Note: TFI International LLC was the new company created thru a name change from Stratex Freedom Services LLC. TFI International LLC has had several legal subsidiaries registered in Uzbekistan such as TFI International DP, OOO TFI Furniture, etc. TFI International would later be approached to partner in a new company Irex Ltd.
Key Personnel:
Glen H. Lockwood - TFI CEO & President
Frank Edgerly - TFI Vice President
Mike McCall - TFI General Director - joined in early 2003
Randolph Lewis - Kyrgyzstan Country Manager
Mike Mertz - TFI CFO - joined in early 2005
Bertan F. Ersoy - Turkey Country Manager - joined in early 2004
Evgeny Rojkov - joined in late 2003
Geoff Nordloh - fired in early 2005 - still retains 22% ownership in TFI
http://www.tfi-intl.com/

By the Spring of 2002, Glen Lockwood was recruiting additional help for Stratex Freedom Services DP. Remembering that Geoff Nordloh once expressed to him an interest in working in Central Asia, Lockwood now wrote him. After a brief meeting in Turkey, Nordloh joined Stratex Freedom Services DP as its new Chief Financial Officer, traveling between Central Asia and the United States.

Central Asia 2002 – Partners and Power Plays

By the Fall of 2002, problems were developing with John Dawkins’ Uzbek partners, (Mullayanov and Emilfarb) who by now had relocated their business to Afghanistan. The partners sought to oust Dawkins from Stratex Freedom Services DP, more or less attempting to "hijack" the business.

The two partners from Uzbekistan had us by the balls because they were controlling all the production. We had all these contracts and they basically said, ‘Well, either John’s out, or we're not making any more buildings for you.’ – Geoff Nordloh

Growing animosity would lead to the formal split of Stratex Freedom Services DP in July 2003 — one with jurisdiction in Afghanistan, the other in Uzbekistan. The Americans would later discover close to $75,000 of missing inventory from the books. The American owned entity, Stratex Freedom Services LLC, seeking full credit for the work they had accomplished, would change its name to TFI International LLC, severing any remaining association of the two Stratex entities with each other.

Middle East 2003 – New Company, New Partner

By early 2003, anticipating an invasion of Iraq by US led forces, John Dawkins sought to create a new company modeled on Stratex’s delivery of containerized buildings. With the assistance of Stratex Freedom Services LLC’s Chief Financial Officer, Nordloh, and repeating the successful business model of pairing with a local supplier, Dawkins created the new company, this time with a local Turkish partner, Mete Mutluoglu.

Mutluoglu was the owner of Microserve, a then inactive company registered in Turkey. Microserve agreed to change its name to Ultra Services for a 50–50 split in ownership: 50% of the shares would be owned by Stratex Freedom Services LLC through a $50,000 investment in the new company; the other 50% of the shares would be owned by Mutluoglu. For putting the company together, John Dawkins would be granted a 50% share through Stratex Freedom Services LLC in exchange for contributing his own “sweat equity” by being in Iraq. This arrangement would give Dawkins a 25% share in Ultra Services. Two men from Turkey would also join the company as employee managers, Bora Tuncay and Egeman Çakmak.

We sent the money. We signed a written agreement with Mete about the basis of getting this company set up, what the roles would be, and then I went to Uzbekistan. Things very quickly, of course, heated up in Iraq. John, as he has had a history of doing, got some interesting stuff going pretty quickly. – Geoff Nordloh

Microserve

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Founded: believed to have been founded in May 1998
Locations: Turkey Note: Microserve Mikro Sistemler ve Teknoloji Ltd. is the name used on website. Mete Mutluoglu also has companies Microserve Technology LLC registered in Pennsylvania and Microserve Technology, Inc in Virginia but it is unknown if any legal relationship exists with Microserve of Turkey.
Key Personnel:
Mete Mutluoglu - owner
http://Microserve.com.tr
http://microserve.us

Ultra Services

Founded: May 2003 Locations: Iraq, Turkey
Note: Ultra Services was to be the name of a new company created from Microserve to be registered in Turkey. Mete Mutluoglu would own 50% thru Microserve while the other 50% would be owned by Stratex Freedom Services LLC thru its $50,000 investment. Stratex Freedom Services LLC was later renamed TFI International. John Dawkins was originally to have been a 25% owner in Ultra Services thru a 50% share of Stratex investment. Dawkins would pay in "sweat equity" as he would be working out of Iraq. It is not known if the legal paperwork necessary to establish Ultra Services in Turkey was ever completed by Mete Mutluoglu.
Key Personnel:
Mete Mutluoglu - 50% owner thru his company Microserve
John Dawkins - intended to be a 25% owner
Geoff Nordloh - informally the CFO - represented the interests of the investment from Stratex Freedom Services LLC but was never an officer or employee.
Employees:
Ryan Manelick
Albert Charles Phillips
Kirk von Ackermann
Bora Tuncay
Egemen Çakmak
Sanaria
Omar
Abu
Guven
http://www.ultra-services.com

By April 2003, Ultra Services had begun to operate out of Mete Mutluoglu’s office in Istanbul, Turkey. Dawkins would secure contracts in Iraq, while back in Istanbul, the contracts would be fulfilled by Turkish suppliers. Ultra Services was dependent on the expert sales skills of John Dawkins with the US Army’s contract officers. As a prime contractor, most of the company’s contracts were with the 4th Infantry Division - the majority of the contracts signed by Major Rich Hall of the US Army.

As Ultra Services’ business in Iraq quickly began to expand, two things occurred.

First, John Dawkins began moving away from working with his Turkish partner, Mutluoglu. Having increased his own local contacts, Dawkins appeared to no longer feel the need to rely on Mutluoglu. The previously clear roles of the 50–50 partnership between Stratex/Dawkins and Mutluoglu began to unravel.

Second, Dawkins asked for more active participation from his Stratex partners, wanting them to join him in Iraq. But, having committed to building up a meaningful business in Central Asia, the Stratex partners were too busy and, in general terms, not interested.

As a result, one of the first Americans to join John Dawkins in Iraq was Ryan Manelick, the son of a close personal friend, Greg Manelick, a retired military officer. Greg Manelick and John Dawkins had maintained a friendship from their days of working together in the Russian Far East, where Manelick continued to work for Exxon in the Sakhalin region.

Ryan Manelick had served in the US Air Force intelligence department as a linguist. Having studied at the Defense Language Institute, he spoke several languages in addition to English, including Chinese and Spanish.⁹ When Manelick arrived in Baghdad during the summer of 2003, he quickly took over the “heavy lifting” of Ultra Services’ operations: overseeing the set up and movement of containerized buildings. Initially staying in local hotels, eventually Manelick would work for Ultra Services while living out of a combo apartment-office in Baghdad.

In the meantime, Geoff Nordloh had heard from former Stanford Business School classmate, Albert “Charles” Phillips who read about Nordloh in Stanford’s Alumni notes.

He was particularly interested in Nordloh’s work in Central Asia. While Stratex had no immediate need of Phillips in Central Asia, Dawkins was pressing his Stratex partners for more help in Iraq. After several phone calls, Phillips arrived mid-summer to work for Ultra Services out of their Istanbul office.

Mete Mutluoglu, however, objected to another “expensive American” joining the company' s payroll. As a result, Stratex Freedom Services LLC agreed to pay half of Phillips’ salary for the first three or four months. After those three or four months, Stratex and Ultra Services would need to work out a new deal.

Charles was mostly in Turkey, ostensibly dealing with backside of operations, dealing with suppliers who were building the modular units — prefabricated types of construction.

I know that Charles made at least two trips into Iraq; he might have made two or three more. At first things seemed to be fine, and then later on there seemed to be this conflict that developed between Charles and John [Dawkins]. – Geoff Nordloh

Unsure of the changing nature of the company’s partnerships, and with John Dawkins vague on details, Nordloh was dealing almost exclusively with Phillips in overseeing Stratex’s $50,000 investment in Iraq. Even with the addition of Charles Phillips to Ultra Services, John Dawkins increasingly worked as an independent agent, while simultaneously securing contracts with the US Army. As work progressed, Phillips became the one who was communicating with the suppliers and the Stratex partners, while Dawkins avoided any discussion of the changing partnership. The Stratex partners were growing increasingly alarmed.

In effect, John operated as ‘John Dawkins’ doing business as ‘Ultra Services.’ There’s no such legal company. – Geoff Nordloh

Prior to arriving in Istanbul, Charles Phillips had worked for the software company Siebel Systems of San Mateo, California. While at Siebel, Phillips had met former Air Force Captain Kirk von Ackermann. Von Ackermann had experience working in combat zones, having been assigned to NATO intelligence operations in Kosovo.¹⁰ Through contact with Phillips while he was in Istanbul, von Ackermann would eventually join Ultra Services and begin traveling between Turkey and Iraq.

Kirk von Ackermann was ostensibly coming to work for the company, but the fact is that Charles brought him over. He saw Kirk getting involved as an opportunity to start not being dependent on John [Dawkins] for business development in Iraq. – Geoff Nordloh

By the time von Ackermann joined Ultra Services, Mete Mutluoglu was effectively no longer an active partner. Thus Von Ackermann’s salary would not need to be subsidized by Stratex Freedom Service LLC as Phillips' had. Phillips would pay his salary directly out of Ultra Services funds. Like Manelick, Kirk von Ackermann spoke a number of foreign languages, including Russian, which was useful in Istanbul with its large number of Russian ex-patriots.

As Ultra Services’ work progressed, Phillips was increasingly sending up alarms about Dawkins to Nordloh. He accused Dawkins of being disorganized and endangering people in Iraq. At one point Phillips reported Dawkins had driven up too quickly to a military gate, resulting in the car being fired upon. Phillips made it clear to Nordloh that he felt Dawkins was a risk. He also claimed to be nervous that Dawkins might withhold payments to Turkish suppliers.¹¹

I spoke with [Kirk] once on the phone. It was at a point where, Charles had been reading the riot act, vis-à-vis John. At that point Kirk had been with John, had been into Iraq and I wanted to get his ‘take’ on the situation. He was a lot more mellow about the situation with John than Charles [was].” – Geoff Nordloh

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