Last week, Tactical Products Group, LLC (TPG) CEO Dan Thomas Lounsbury, Jr and Vice President for Sales and Federal Contracting Andres Lopez-Munoz, were in Federal Court in the Eastern District of Virginia due to charges of conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims and wire fraud. Lounsbury is additionally charged with false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims.
TPG is a Florida-based manufacturer and re-seller of various products to military, law enforcement, and private security clients. According to the United States Attorney’s Office, in 2012, TPG was selected as a sub-contractor on a contract to provide certain goods, including ten sets of hard body armor plates, to the United States government. The government had requested a specific type of plate, and Lounsbury and Lopez-Munoz both knew that no substitutions were allowed. Furthermore, Lounsbury and Lopez-Munoz both knew that these plates would be used to protect government personnel. The consequence of a failure of body armor is death or serious bodily injury. Nevertheless, Lounsbury and Lopez-Munoz worked together to procure cheaper substitute plates, and then to put fraudulent labels on these substitute plates falsely stating that they were the type of plates that the government had required. Some of these cheaper substitute plates were far outside their warranty period, and were not as protective as the false labels claimed.
The supplied plates were provided to Triple Canopy to fulfill a contract. Reportedly, the plates supplied were known to delaminate. Furthermore, four of the 10 plates supplied were six years out of warranty. Amazingly, the value of the contract is said to be just $3,500.
If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
