Navy SEAL who wrote bin Laden raid book must pay government at least $6.8 million

By Dan Lamothe August 19 at 5:18 PM

The Navy SEAL who wrote a best-selling book detailing the secretive raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden must pay the federal government at least $6.8 million under a deal reached Friday to avoid prosecution for not getting pre-publication approval for the work.

The deal had been expected, and was outlined in a six-page decree filed in federal court in Alexandria, Va. It ends a nearly four-year saga for Matthew Bissonnette that began with the publication of “No Easy Day: The Firsthand of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden” one year after the raid. Bissonnette ran afoul of the law for not adhering to a non-disclosure agreement he signed as a SEAL that stated that he would submit any work for review by the Pentagon to make sure no classified information was revealed.

A decree signed by both federal authorities and Bissonnette and filed Friday said the SEAL and the government reached the deal after “extensive negotiations.” It holds that Bissonnette must pay $2.76 million within 30 days, and an additional $1.38 million within six months. He also must file amended tax returns within six months that all of the proceeds he made on the book belong to the United States.

Bissonnette, who wrote the book under the pen name “Mark Owen,” also agreed to pay the government $100,000 for a presentation on leadership that he gave that used slides that included information that was not submitted for Pentagon review first, the decree adds.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]