The former owner and CEO of an armored vehicle company was found guilty Thursday on three counts of major fraud against the United States, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of false claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
William Whyte, 72, of Ontario, Canada, was found guilty following a two-week trial, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office of the Western District of Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whyte\u2019s company, Armet Armed Vehicles Inc., supplied only six of the 24 vehicles it had been contracted to provide the Defense Department for use by high-level Iraqi dignitaries, according to the release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both contracts stipulated that the vehicles needed to be able to repel armor-piercing bullets in the passenger compartments and ceilings, as well as have plate protection along the vehicles\u2019 undercarriages to withstand explosives on the road, according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, the vehicles were required to have run-flat tires, which would keep the vehicles drivable even if their tires were shot out. However, none of the six vehicles ultimately supplied met the ballistic and blast-protection standards required by the contracts, according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe defendant put his personal financial interests ahead of the safety of our brave men and women in uniform who risked their lives serving in Iraq,\u201d acting United States Attorney Rick Mountcastle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evidence presented at trial showed Whyte knew the six armored vehicles failed to meet the contract\u2019s standards, and were intentionally under-armored, despite his claims to the contrary, according to the release. The prosecutors also presented evidence that Whyte intentionally misrepresented other issues to U.S. military officers about the contracts and vehicles, according to the release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStealing from taxpayers by defrauding the government is bad enough. Doing it in a way that imperils our warfighters and delivers to them equipment which is faulty or insufficient \u2014 that\u2019s a special kind of despicable,\u201d said Adam Lee, special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s Richmond Division.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two contracts, agreed upon in April and June 2006, that Armet failed to meet were worth $6.4 million combined, according to the release. The company was initially paid more than $2 million for the six delivered vehicles, including a roughly $800,000 progress payment that Whyte requested, according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hope this case sends a message to those who contract with the government to provide essential equipment to our troops in support of their critical mission,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe FBI will be on your trail if you betray them this way and steal from the taxpayers who fund them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former owner of the armored vehicle company was found guilty on three counts of major fraud against the U.S. related to vehicles he was to supply for use in Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3297],"class_list":["post-41535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"H2YIJ5D5CBGSRFZKHV7V6IB3JU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2017\/10\/13\/former-ceo-of-armored-vehicle-company-found-guilty-of-fraud\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n