BulletProof-It, a Vancouver-based company that sold substandard vests, helmets and vests to nearly 300 police agencies around the country, must pay $2.7 million in restitution, a federal judge ordered this week.
The owner, Jeffrey Meining, advertised and claimed that the merchandise his company sold was made in the U.S. and met national standards, yet most of the products were imported from Chinese companies, hadn’t been tested or had failed tests and “were simply not what he promised to buyers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Quinn P. Harrington said in court papers.
In March, Meining, 42, a former combat Marine, was sentenced to one year and one day for wire fraud. Meining is currently serving the sentence in the federal prison in Sheridan.
His victims included several hundred local, state and federal police agencies, fire departments and military branches across the country, from Kauai, Hawaii, to Coral Springs, Florida, court records showed.
Harrington argued for a slightly higher $2.9 million sum, while Meaning’s lawyer countered that his client shouldn’t pay anything.
Defense lawyer Ron Hoevet argued that not all the agencies that bought the helmets and other gear from Meining were concerned that they were made in China versus the United States. The agencies that used the gear also did so without any harm to their employees, Hoevet said.
“The customers paid a fair price for gear they received from Meining. Many customers used the BPI (BulletProof-It) helmets and body armor for years,” Hoevet wrote to the judge. “Customers who elected not to replace the gear may still be using it. The Court should decline to adopt the purchase price as loss.”
U.S. District Judge Michael J. Mosman found that victims in the case — each company that bought gear from Meining’s company under false pretenses — were due restitution. The judge excluded one agency from Polk County, Florida, as a victim after Hoevet presented papers that Meining told the buyer that the helmets were made in China.
The fraud occurred from at least 2016 through 2022, the investigation showed.
Among Oregon agencies, the Department of Corrections is owed $1,700 for four active shooter ballistic vests with front, back and side armor inserts it bought; the Beaverton Police Department, $1,495 for five high-cut helmets; Crook County Sheriff’s Office in Prineville, $4,500 for two tactical shields; Lebanon Police Department, $999 for one tactical shield; Philomath Fire & Rescue, $3,742 for four ballistic helmets; and North Bend Police Department, $5,293.98 for 18 helmets, according to the government’s records submitted to the court.
Federal agencies, from the U.S. Marshals Service to the Bureau of Prisons, also made purchases based on the misleading advertising by Meining’s company, according to court records. The largest purchase was by the U.S. Department of State, $125,008 for 676 helmets.
Arizona’s Mesa Police Department paid the most for gear from the company, $422,659.07 for 960 helmets, according to court records.
The company asserted its gear complied with the Trade Agreement Act, which requires the government only buy products produced, manufactured or “substantially transformed” in the United States or a so-called “designated country,” determined by trade agreements. China isn’t a designated country under the federal act.
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