Richard C. Davis, the former head of Michigan-based Second Chance Body Armor, has agreed to resolve FCA claims about the sale of defective Zylon bullet-proof vests for use by law enforcement agencies, by relinquishing $1.325 million in additional and previously frozen assets.
Second Chance sold body armor to federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, paid for by the Department of Justice or under federal GSA contracts. The vests deteriorated rapidly when exposed to heat and humidity, and tests revealed a greater than 50 percent failure rate in stopping the type of bullets for which the vests were certified. Davis was allegedly aware of the problems with the vest material by 2001.
Furthermore, rather than using a $6 million payment from the manufacturer of the Zylon fiber to fix the problem, Second Chance allegedly pocketed the money and began efforts to sell the company. These efforts stopped after a Pennsylvania police officer was shot through his Second Chance vest in 2003, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
The settlement resolves, in part, allegations filed in a lawsuit by a former employee of Second Chance, under the whistleblower provisions of the FCA. It is also part of a larger investigation of the body armor industry’s use of Zylon.
