A longtime builder of U.S. embassies has sued the State Department, seeking more than $461 million over work it says the government ordered it to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. The suit, first reported by Fox News Digital, was filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
B.L. Harbert International has constructed dozens of embassies and consulates over more than two decades. The complaint covers 12 diplomatic construction projects across four continents, including facilities in Turkey, Iraq, Thailand, Morocco, Mexico and Central America.
According to the company, career State Department officials agreed in September 2025 to a $370 million settlement of its claims. Harbert says the government paid only $501,636 before reversing course. It alleges that political leadership "inserted themselves into the process after a settlement was reached" and that the decision to abandon the deal "came from the top." Fox News Digital has asked the State Department for comment.
The dispute spans three administrations. It begins with State Department directives issued in 2020 during President Trump's first term, continues through Harbert's pursuit of compensation under the Biden administration, and ends with the alleged settlement and its collapse in Trump's second term.
When the pandemic began, Harbert was working on 17 embassy and consulate projects worldwide, nearly two-thirds of State's embassy construction program at the time, the lawsuit says. The company argues the pandemic was an "excusable delay" under its contracts, which would have let it send workers home, secure sites and resume later. Instead, it alleges, State chose to keep the program moving, telling Harbert to stay ready to mobilize, keep buying and shipping materials, and document costs for reimbursement.
The complaint cites a March 2020 message in which Harbert warned that it could not keep paying idle workers without assurances of reimbursement. Labor costs at the new embassy in Guatemala City alone ran about $1.3 million per month, according to the filing. Weeks later, State allegedly told the company to "continue to procure and ship materials" so projects would not fall to the "back of the line" once global construction resumed. Harbert says the projects went ahead under restrictions that raised costs and cut productivity. It adds that the government has taken possession of all 12 facilities, using some for more than three years.
Harbert submitted more than $500 million in requests for equitable adjustments and other claims, covering the pandemic directives and separate disputes such as alleged design changes and government-caused delays. It says it certified the claims in March 2026 after State's chief of staff encouraged it to do so, saying certification would ease implementation of the settlement. State contracting officers began denying claims in July, and by Oct. 13, 2026, all 13 certified claims in the suit had final decisions.
The suit seeks at least $461,097,380 plus interest. It does not currently ask the court to enforce the $370 million settlement, since those claims remain in the administrative process, though Harbert reserves the right to add them later.
"We did not want to take this step," said Charles Bohn, president of BL Harbert's International Group. "But we have a responsibility to our employees and to the future of that mission. We kept our commitment under extraordinarily difficult conditions. We are asking the government to keep its commitment to us."
The company says the stakes extend beyond the money. Harbert has won roughly 60 embassy and consulate projects since 1999, and it says some projects now attract only two or three qualified bidders because of strict security and workforce-vetting requirements. If contractors lose confidence that State will honor its obligations, Harbert argues, even fewer may take on the work.
