BulletProof-It, a Vancouver-based body armor supply company, advertised on its website that its helmets and vests were made in the United States, had undergone testing and met national standards.
“We take no chances when it comes to saving lives,” the website said.
But a federal investigation found those words rang hollow.
Jeffrey Meining, the 42-year-old owner and a former combat Marine, sold more than $2.7 million worth of ballistic equipment for at least six years that had been made outside of the United States and hadn’t been tested or had failed tests, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Quinn P. Harrington in Portland.
His victims included more than 100 local, state and federal police agencies, fire departments and military branches across the country, from Kauai, Hawaii, to Coral Springs, Florida, court records showed.
Among the federal agencies that bought Meining’s substandard equipment were the Drug Enforcement Agency, Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Coast Guard, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, prosecutors said.
The State Department, for example, bought 600 helmets in 2017 for $107,994, but the helmets were either not made in the United States as claimed or didn’t meet National Institute of Justice safety standards, the government said.
Meining had imported most of the gear he sold from China and sold it at a significant mark-up – making more than $2.7 million, according to Harrington. The government has not yet determined a restitution amount but said it’s currently “in the millions of dollars.”
U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman last week sentenced Meining to one year and one day in prison after he pleaded guilty last spring to wire fraud.
The government had sought a longer prison term of one year and nine months.
“Mr. Meining’s motive was greed,” Harrington said in a sentencing memo. “He could have purchased legitimate products for sale, but he chose to lie.”
Defense lawyer Ronald H. Hoevert argued for a lesser sentence of probation, seeking leniency due to Meining’s service as a Marine, honorable discharge from the military and role as a protective security specialist for the U.S. State Department.
Hoevet said Meining believed the products were safe and that there was no evidence anyone died or suffered a serious injury as a result of the gear he sold.
The fraud occurred from at least 2016 through 2022, prosecutors said.
BulletProof-It asserted its gear complied with the Trade Agreement Act, which requires the government to buy only products produced, manufactured or “substantially transformed” in the United States or a so-called “designated country” determined by trade agreements. China is not a designated country under the federal act.
Among Meining’s fraudulent sales, according to prosecutors:
– In 2019, he signed a $247,800 contract with the Mesa Police Department in Arizona for 840 helmets. Under the contract, he said the helmets met national safety standards, but then provided an altered helmet performance test.
— In December 2017, he bought 600 helmets from a Chinese company for $50,250. Around the same time, he sold 600 of the same helmet model for $90,000, a nearly 80% markup price to a reseller. The State Department then bought 600 of those helmets from the reseller for $107,994, according to court records.
–- In 2021, he signed a $32,680 contract with the Air Force for helmets and other equipment and promised that the helmets were made in the U.S. and met national safety standards for a .44 magnum bullet. Neither was true, according to Harrington.
—From 2016 through January 2022, he supplied more than $1 million in products under a federal General Services Administration contract, and nearly $400,000 of it was substitute gear that did not meet safety standards or were not made in the United States, according to the government.
– Among Oregon agencies, according to the prosecutor’s records, the Department of Corrections paid the company $850 in 2019 for two active shooter ballistic vests with front, back and side armor inserts that didn’t meet national safety standards; the Beaverton Police Department paid $1,495 in 2017 for five high-cut helmets that didn’t meet safety standards; and the Ashland Fire Department paid $1,500 in 2019 for three active shooter response kits that include body armor plates worn in vests to protect against rifle or other high-powered guns.
Meining’s actions marked “a grave breach of integrity (and) endangered the lives of those sworn to protect and serve,” Robert Hammer, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ Seattle field office, said in a statement.
The fraud “put U.S. service members at risk, degraded American warfighter readiness, and undermined the missions of our military services,” said Bryan D. Denny, special agent in charge of the Department of Defense’s regional criminal investigative office.
Meining and his company faces a federal civil suit filed by Idaho-based supplier U.S. Tactical Supply Inc., alleging fraud and breach of contract. The company bought more than $1 million in gear from Meining and then sold it to law enforcement and other government agencies, the suit says.
“Defendants falsified test results to make it appear as though the products met certain protection levels and standards,” the suit says.
As a result of the faulty information, U.S. Tactical Supply issued a recall on all of the equipment, attorney Peter J. Smith IV wrote in the suit. The civil suit was placed on hold until Meining’s criminal prosecution was completed.
