The former head of the leading boot making company of the U.S. military was recently sentenced to federal prison for fraud after a scheme in which he imported Chinese-made boots labeled with \u201cUSA\u201d to pass off as American-made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vincent Lee Ferguson, 66, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced to more than three years in prison for the contract fraud earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former president and chief executive officer will join his Wellco Enterprises, Inc. co-workers, former Senior Vice President of Sales Matthew Lee Ferguson, 41, and former Director of Marketing and Communications, Kerry Joseph Ferguson, 36, who were sentenced in June to six months in prison, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the Berry Amendment, U.S. military uniform items must be manufactured in the United States. The company has been the lead boot supplier for the Department of Defense for more than 70 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between 2006 and 2012 alone, DoD paid more than $138 million for combat boots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ferguson and his executive team\u2019s Chinese import scheme began as early as December 2008 and lasted through August 2012, a time in which they sold more than $8.1 million worth of the fraudulent boots, according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two shipments of fraudulent \u201cUSA\u201d boots were seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Customs and Border Protection. On each pair, Ferguson and his team had the manufacturer tear away \u201cMade in China\u201d tags prior to shipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFalsely selling our military millions of dollars of combat boots by saying they were \u2018Made in the USA\u2019 when they are actually Chinese-knockoffs not only defrauds the government, but also defrauds the American soldier,\u201d said Defense Criminal Investigative Service Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer. \u201cOur soldiers rely on their equipment, from their guns to their boots, to protect this country, and counterfeit products could fail at a moment when they need them the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former president and CEO, along with two other top executives, received prison sentences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39027,"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":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,88,89,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3405],"class_list":["post-17100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"OD7GI6D7LRHE3AR6IYVB43PSHY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2018\/08\/20\/boot-maker-jailed-for-selling-the-military-chinese-made-boots-with-made-in-the-usa-labels\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n