Ex-Navy SEAL to pay $7mn for book on Bin Laden raid
A former US Navy SEAL who has written a book on his involvement in the military mission to assassinate al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will be forced to pay the government nearly $7 million in royalties to avoid prosecution for not getting the necessary pre-publication approval for the work.
Matt Bissonette -- who writes under the pen name Mark Owen -- is to pay the US government more than $6.6 million for failing to get clearance from the US Defense Department before publishing the 2012 book -- titled No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden -- detailing his role in the secret raid that killed Bin Laden, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
Bissonette was put under investigation for breaking non-disclosure agreements and publishing the book without getting its contents cleared by the Pentagon, the report added, citing settlement documents filed with the US District Court in Virginia.
He has agreed to forfeit all profits and royalties, as well as film rights and speaking fees to bring an end to more than two years of civil and criminal investigations. In the settlement filed at the Virginia court, Bissonette admitted that he had failed to submit his book for review ahead of publication. "It was a serious error that I urge others not to repeat."
He has four years to pay the government most of the profits he makes from the book or movie rights. In exchange, the US government will dismiss other liability claims. Bissonette has 30 days to pay $100,000 earned from additional presentations he gave to promote his book.
According to Bissonnette’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, he recently forfeited $180,000 in fees for consulting work that he did for military contractors while he was still on the SEAL team.
Bin Laden was allegedly killed in a May 2011 Navy Seal raid on his compound in Pakistan's Abbottabad, without authorization from Islamabad. US authorities then announced that his body had been discarded at sea.
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