In March 2007, the IRS issued a letter to Blackwater Security Consulting LLC ruling that the company misclassified one of its guards as an independent contractor and therefore would be responsible for withholding and paying employment taxes for the guard as required by federal law. Later in the year, after Blackwater personnel were involved in a fatal shooting in Iraq, Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman’s subsequent discovery of the IRS letter and a nondisclosure agreement Blackwater allegedly used to keep the IRS matter secret led Waxman to issue a letter to Prince warning that his committee would investigate Blackwater for possible large-scale tax evasion and a corresponding cover-up. In March 2008, Rep. Waxman requested the IRS, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Labor investigate Blackwater’s compliance with federal tax, small business and labor laws vis-a-vis its classification of security guards as independent contractors rather than employees.