Two Florida executives made their initial appearance in federal court on Sept. 7, 2018 on charges related to falsely-labeled hard body armor plates they provided to the United States government.
According to allegations in the indictment, Dan Thomas Lounsbury, Jr., of South Palm Beach, is the founder, sole owner, and CEO of Tactical Products Group, LLC (TPG), a Florida-based manufacturer and re-seller of various products to military, law enforcement, and private security clients. Andres Lopez-Munoz, 34, of Boynton Beach, is TPG’s Vice President for Sales and Federal Contracting.
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, were not as protective as the false labels claimed, and had the potential to “delaminate,” meaning that the adhesive binding the layers of the body armor plate could fail, under certain conditions.
Lounsbury and Lopez-Munoz are both charged with conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims and wire fraud. Lounsbury is additionally charged with false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Readers are reminded that an indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/men-indicted-providing-falsely-labeled-body-armor
