Some things ... well ... there isn't any penalty that really properly suits the crime.
Man Sold US Knock-Off Batteries for Carriers, Subs
The Ventura County Star wrote:
A former Simi Valley man has been convicted of defrauding the U.S. government by selling more than $2.6 million in knock-off batteries to the Department of Defense.
Didier De Nier, 63, was found guilty Wednesday of five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. De Nier lived in Simi Valley until he left the U.S. about two years ago to live aboard his yacht near the Caribbean island of St. Martin.
He is the former CEO of Powerline, which was based in Simi Valley and sold more than 80,000 batteries and battery assemblies to the Navy for emergency power on aircraft carriers, minesweepers and ballistic submarines. The company also did business as Birdman Distribution Corp.
De Nier and his employees attached counterfeit labels to the knock-off batteries, so they appeared to come from approved manufacturers, according to evidence presented at the trial. They also used chemicals to remove "Made in China" markings from the batteries.
De Nier is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 18. He faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in federal prison.
His former wife, Lisa De Nier, who served as the company's vice president of sales, previously pleaded guilty in the case to conspiracy to defraud the government. She is expected to be sentenced later this year and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Thirty-odd years ago, we had a case in the Atlanta area in which a couple of sleazebags were caught selling cheap steel with falsified documentation as high-tensile steel ... to be used in submarine pressure hulls.
I was all for saving the cost of imprisoning them by introducing them to large groups of Navy veterans, especially submariners.
Not even duct tape can fix stupid. But it can muffle the noise.
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Peace through superior firepower - ain't nothin' more peaceful than a dead troublemaker.
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mike weber
Except that we're not - "state of war" requires a formal declaration.
Not even duct tape can fix stupid. But it can muffle the noise.
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Peace through superior firepower - ain't nothin' more peaceful than a dead troublemaker.
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mike weber
Fairportfan wrote:Except that we're not - "state of war" requires a formal declaration.
I know but it was the idea behind the referenced quote. It is just that it would be ideal solution and a nice way to help dissuade other scumbags from doing the same. (It would also cost we the tax payers far less to bury them then to house them for a lifetime)
This message is brought to you by the "Let the artist know how much you LOVE his work" council.
Fairportfan wrote:Except that we're not - "state of war" requires a formal declaration.
I know but it was the idea behind the referenced quote. It is just that it would be ideal solution and a nice way to help dissuade other scumbags from doing the same. (It would also cost we the tax payers far less to bury them then to house them for a lifetime)
Tattoo "Sold the Navy substandard materiel" on them front and back and then set them loose in the precise geographical center of the Norfolk yard at noon on a Monday.
Not even duct tape can fix stupid. But it can muffle the noise.
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Peace through superior firepower - ain't nothin' more peaceful than a dead troublemaker.
=====================
mike weber
Fairportfan wrote:Except that we're not - "state of war" requires a formal declaration.
Correct. Congress has authorized certain ongoing military activities under the terms of the War Power Act, but has not (at present) formally declared war on anyone.
Yeah, there are always plenty of lovely folks who do such things, such as the guy who made millions of pounds by selling fake bomb detectors to countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan.
I've often thought that it would make the designers and sellers of these sorts of safety items much more reliable if they were required to personally demonstrate the effectiveness of a random sampling of their product in the field.
