Federal prosecutors are investigating the Kuwaiti company building the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad [First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting], probing allegations that foreign employees were brought to work on the massive project against their will and prevented from leaving the country... According to the allegations, First Kuwaiti confiscated the workers' passports, so they were unable to depart Baghdad... A statement by First Kuwaiti said, "We are not aware of any DOJ investigation involving First Kuwaiti. The DOS [State Department] has already fully investigated these ludicrous allegations and has found them to be without merit..." ...U.S. officials have expressed growing concern about human trafficking by companies working on American-funded projects in Iraq. Last year, the Defense Department said it conducted an investigation into such problems... The Pentagon said its probe "identified a number of abuses, some of them considered widespread," committed by Pentagon contractors and subcontractors... In September, State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard visited the embassy locale after receiving [similar] allegations... Mr. Krongard later reported he found no evidence of wrongdoing... The U.S. military also investigated First Kuwaiti over similar allegations. In a report released in March, the inspector general for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq said workers from [South Asia] complained of "fraudulent hiring practices" by recruitment firms in their home countries... The report cleared First Kuwaiti of wrongdoing, noting that investigators had found "no evidence of Trafficking in Persons violations."