Former executives of US body armor firm arrested (War Profiteers)

[DinahMoeHum]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060817/us_nm/financial_sec_armor_dc

(snip)
U.S. authorities arrested two former top executives of a major body armor supplier to the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies on Thursday and charged them with criminal securities fraud and insider trading.

Federal prosecutors alleged former Chief Financial Officer Dawn Schlegel and former Chief Operating Officer Sandra Hatfield manipulated DHB Industries Inc.'s books "to reap millions of dollars of profits through insider trading."

The lawsuit was a fresh blow to DHB. The U.S. military last year recalled thousands of protective vests sold by DHB's Point Blank Body Armor Inc. unit on quality concerns.

The company was recently delisted from the American Stock Exchange. Last month it placed Chief Executive David Brooks on indefinite leave pending the outcome of investigations.
(snip)


:grr:

BTW, the CEO of DHB, David H Brooks, was the war profiteer slimebag who threw a $10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter in November 2005:

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/369994p-314735c.html

http://www.judicial-inc.biz/War_profiteers.htm

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/29/164552/71

:grr:

[Independent_Liberal]

1. Any ties to Halliburton?

Keep the scandals coming!

:D

[DinahMoeHum]

3. I don't think so.

n/t

[SpiralHawk]

2. I'd bet a sack of doughnuts he's a republicon

They love to trash our honored American Veterans (Swiftboating) and to make massive war and oil profits.

[Scurrilous]

7. You might win that bet:

http://www.culturefreak.com/blog-cabin/archives/2005/11/bulletproof_bro.html

"A quick check of political donations this year shows that Brooks contributed $25,000 this past June to the National Republican Senate Committee."

[UpInArms]

4. there's even more disgusting antics here:

The Rise and Fall of a War Profiteer

In November 2005, bulletproof vest maker David H. Brooks made national headlines when he blew a pile of his war windfalls on a celebrity-studded bash in New York City’s Rainbow Room. For Brooks, the highlight of the $10 million gala was a performance by rockers from Aerosmith. So pumped was the middle-aged Long Island businessman that he reportedly donned a hot pink, metal-studded suede pantsuit to cavort onstage with Steven Tyler.

While Brooks was enjoying his rock star fantasy, dark clouds were forming over him and his company, DHB Industries. The stock was in the toilet, the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating him, and then there was the mood-killing matter of the military recalling his company’s bulletproof vests over concerns about their bulletproofness. In hindsight, the pink-suited Brooks showed all the symptoms of a man who feared his partying days were numbered.

And indeed, as of this week, his reign as America’s most ostentatious war profiteer does appear to be over. On July 10, the DHB Board of Directors issued a terse statement to the effect that Brooks had been put on indefinite “administrative leave” pending the outcome of unspecified investigations.

The Justice and Defense Departments are jointly investigating Brooks for possible criminal fraud and insider trading. The SEC had already been looking into the company in response to shareholder lawsuits charging that DHB execs carried out a “pump-and-dump” scheme to artificially inflate profits before selling off a boatload of their stock in 2004. Brooks personally sold about $186 million worth, shortly before the share price plummeted from about $22 to around $10. Today it’s selling over the counter for less than $1. The company was booted from the American Stock Exchange last month for blowing off reporting deadlines.

Getting shoved out of a company you named after yourself has gotta sting. But Mr. DHB’s forced vacation hardly makes up for the troubles he’s caused shareholders, taxpayers and soldiers as he capitalized on the “War on Terror.”

...more worth reading....

[patrice]

5. I wonder how his daughter feels about her bat mitzvah that cost

so many soldiers their lives. Whatever she thinks now; she's got the rest of her life to live with that. "Thanks a lot Dad!"

[Scurrilous]

6. Meanwhile...

...they're still getting contracts from the military:

Navy buys body armor from troubled company

<snip>

"The Navy ordered more than $9 million worth of body armor from a company whose equipment was recalled last year by the Army and Marine Corps.

A delivery order placed by Naval Sea Systems Command for “desert-use” body armor should be complete this month, according to a contract announcement by the Defense Department on July 14."

<snip>

"On July 14, the day the Defense Department announced the contract, David H. Brooks, the founder and chairman of Point Blank’s parent company DHB Industries, was forced to resign in connection with shareholder lawsuits, according to news reports.

A May 2005 investigation by Marine Corps Times revealed that some vests made by Point Blank and bought by the Marines failed ballistic tests. The Marines recalled 5,000 vests that May.

In November 2005, following a Pentagon evaluation of Point Blank vests, the Marines recalled 10,342 vests and the Army recalled 8,083 vests."

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2015075.php

[DemoTex]

8. Who the fuck enabled this wicked shit? The ubiquitous BFEE.

Specifically: Bu$h Jr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice. Powell is in for a dime, so he is in - too - for a dollar. Hague 'em all. Then line up the minor PNAC beadles (and these executives) and march their asses into the dock.

Penalty phase? The wall. Their body armor. Firing squad.

[saigon68]

18. Its the Krupp family in Germany

Feeding at the trough.

[whistle]

9. Mkae them give back the profits

[cascadiance]

17. How about forcing them to test their own body armor with live explosives!

Have them have to test it enough times so that if they survive then their company can be shown to have manufactured something that was of reasonable quality. If they die then so be it, and that's their punishment!

[lumpy]

10. Isn't unfettered capitalism just glorious ?

No regulation, no oversight, nothing to protect the US citizen from corporate greed. And what party do they represent? Why, the Republican party, of course, the party of free enterprize.

[havocmom]

11. Napoleon had a way of dealing with profiteers,

didn't he?

[Canuckistanian]

12. Oh? What did he do?

I can well imagine. Justice was.... swifter in those days.

[farmbo]

20. Lincoln's (Civil War) Oversight Committee:death penalty for war profiteers

And IMHO this should be a plank in the Dems campaign in 2006 and 2008.

[bluestateguy]

13. Wasn't Brooks the one who spent 10 mil. $ on his daughter's Bat Mitzvah?

nt.

[BreweryYardRat]

14. Here's my ideal SOP for gross corruption like this.

Have the government (have to be Democratic, fucking Repubs wouldn't do this if it would save their mangy souls) confiscate their illegal money and then execute them for gross corruption-and if we can make the charge stick, treason. Strap 'em down, stick a needle in their arms.

Leave their families enough to make a reasonable living (as defined by the 99% of less wealthy folks in the country) off of for a year or two until they can get honest jobs.

Put the confiscated money toward reducing the national debt, balancing the budget, education, or health care.

[TexasLawyer]

15. That party is grotesque

:puke::puke:your tax dollars at work!!!:puke::puke:

[sjdnb]

16. GOP Contributions Trail

Also employ lobbyist Baker, Donalson .... http://www.bakerdonelson.com/Content.aspx?NodeID=2

Their crimes . . .

http://www.attytood.com/archives/002527.html

DHB is the same company that provided the sub-standard vests:
"The Marines and the Army recalled about 23,000 Point Blank vests from the field last year after The Marine Corps Times reported that the Marines acquired the vests despite warnings from Army personnel that the vests had what the newspaper described as "critical, life-threatening flaws.""
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13168

Brooks has reportedly made more than $250 million in wartime profits as the CEO of DHB Industries . . .the Nation http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?mm=12&yr=2005

David H. Brooks, CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB Industries, earned $70 million in 2004, 13,349% more than his 2001 compensation of $525,000. Brooks also sold company stock worth about $186 million last year, spooking investors who drove DHB’s share price from more than $22 to as low as $6.50 . In May 2005, the U.S. Marines recalled more than 5,000 DHB armored vests after questions were raised about their effectiveness. By that time, Brooks had pocketed over $250 million in war windfalls. My LeftWing http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6939

DHB 5 year chart http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DHBT.PK&t=5y

The payback . . .

BROOKS, DAVID H
WESTBURY, NY 11568
DHB INDUSTRIES INC
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE 6/05 $25k (Newsmeat)

Guess troop lives are cheap when you're either a profiteer or GOP politician!

[Nothing Without Hope]

22. Thanks for this. I'm betting they also found a way to avoid paying

taxes on most of this loot. Corrupt from start to finish, like everything connected with the Bush administration.

I recommend you send this plus the current story to Keith Olbermann: [e-mail]

Maybe to Lou Dobbs too, but I don't have his email address.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. Sickening. Reminds me of this photo from several months back:

The GOP crony fatcats gorge, we and future generations pay. The troops just die.