Two sub-contractors have been accused of defrauding an unnamed government agency by selling defective body armor.
The total haul from the fraud: a whopping $3,500.
Jane Musgrave reports in the Palm Beach Post:
“Dan Thomas Lounsbury Jr., owner of Tactical Products Group, and Andres Lopez-Munoz, vice president of sales and federal contracting for the company, were officially charged last week with one count of conspiracy to defraud the government and two counts of wire fraud. Lounsbury is additionally charged with two counts of making false, fictitious or fraudulent claims.
“According to the Virginia indictment, Lounsbury and Lopez-Munoz sacrificed the safety of the body armor for profits. Working as a subcontractor for a firm that had won a contract with an unidentified federal agency, they bought less bullet-resistant body armor from another company and put phony labels on it so it would appear to meet the requirements of the government contract, federal prosecutors said…The government specifically wanted armor that was “designed to stop .30-caliber steel-core armor-piercing bullets fired from a rifle” and made it clear no substitutions would be allowed, prosecutors wrote. Instead, Tactical Products Group provided less rugged armor and put phony labels in the 10 sets of armor in an attempt to fool federal officials. It sent out a bill for $3,500 for the 10 sets.”
