The director of the Pentagon’s new “ Economic Defense Unit ” was a board member of Tier 1 Group, which trained four of the Saudi operatives involved in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Websites dating back to 2009 list George Kollitides in leadership roles at the private security company — indicating he was at Tier 1 Group when it trained the Saudi nationals later linked with Khashoggi’s killing. Under Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s approval , the agents tricked Khashoggi into going to the Saudi Consulate in Turkey — where they ambushed and strangled him, and dismembered and disposed of his body. Tier 1 Group maintains the training it provided to those involved was for defensive purposes, unrelated to the murder, and for a contract with the State Department, which pre-approved the personnel.
An industry source familiar with the matter told RS on the condition of anonymity that Kollitides resigned from Tier 1 Group“as of August 17, 2025.”
A longtime financier, Kollitides was Head of Defense at Cerberus Capital Management, a prominent private equity firm that founded and funded Tier 1 Group, from 2003 to 2012 . He is also Chief Investment Officer of Aegis Capital Advisors — an advisory firm which, until Monday, listed Tier 1 Group in its portfolio . A spokesperson from Cerberus told RS that Kollitides has “no involvement with the operations of Cerberus or any of its portfolio companies.
Now at the Pentagon, Kollitides heads the recently established Economic Defense Unit, which is assembling a team of top-tier investors and bankers to invest $200 billion in U.S. companies it considers critical to U.S. national security, in order to compete with China. The unit has been operating for at least a month .
Cerberus' Pentagon?
Kollitides now joins other former Cerberus executives, at the forefront of Defense Department policy. Indeed, former Cerberus CEO Stephen Feinberg is now the DoD’s deputy secretary — its second-highest-ranking civilian. His high-level duties, including overseeing the defense budget, afford him extraordinary influence. Feinberg is also overhauling the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), which attracts and scales private investments in military technologies; David Lorch left an executive post at Cerberus in late 2025 to lead it. Despite the new government roles, ties to Cerberus endure. Although he divested from his stake in Cerberus upon joining the DoD, Feinberg filed paperwork indicating he still contracts with the firm for tax compliance and accounting services, and for health care. Meanwhile, companies Cerberus invests in, such as Stratolaunch , NetCentrics Corp , Red River Technologies , M1 , and North Wind , have acquired Pentagon contracts since Feinberg assumed the Pentagon role. Kollitides’ Economic Defense Unit seems poised to siphon in more insiders. A pitch deck for the unit promises financier recruits “unmatched access to top-level government officials and privileged information flow” and a chance to invest “more capital than most investors deploy in their entire careers" — essentially marketing the unit as an elite professional development opportunity. “Even if no laws are broken, this is exactly the sort of arrangement that invites insider dealing, political favoritism, and capital allocation based on connections rather than merit,” Tad DeHaven, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, told RS.
Zooming out, lawmakers have long scrutinized Cerberus execs’ ties to Tier 1 Group. In 2020, Trump nominated Cerberus executive and Tier 1 Group board member Louis Bremer to become assistant secretary of defense. But Bremer faced intense questioning over his role at Tier 1 Group at a hearing over his nomination, which was subsequently left to expire .
Observers say the scrutiny should continue. "Congress should hold hearings on [Kollitides’] appointment and on the Economic Defense Unit itself,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, which Khashoggi founded, told RS. “Congress should not allow a private equity network tied to the murder of Khashoggi to run hundreds of billions in Pentagon investment policy without any oversight."
Kollitides, Aegis Capital Advisors, Tier 1 Group, and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment. Aegis Capital Advisors removed Tier 1 Group from its portfolio on its website after RS contacted the advisory firm.
A spokesperson from Cerberus told RS in an email that Feinberg divested in his stake from Cerberus, and is “not involved with the operations of Cerberus or any of its portfolio companies in any way.” They said the services Cerberus provides to Feinberg are unrelated to its operations and investments, and that Lorch is not involved with Cerberus’ operations and affiliated companies.