Posted on 10/28/2007 2:49:08 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Scandalous $10 Million Bat Mitzvah
David Brooks of DHB Industries Arrested for Embezzling Company Funds
Oct. 27, 2007 —
The headliners read like a who's who of music: Aerosmith, 50 Cent and Don Henley of the Eagles.
No, it wasn't the Grammys, it was 13-year-old Elizabeth Brooks' birthday party -- a $10 million mega bat mitzvah. Aerosmith alone was paid a $1 million to perform -- flown in on her father's company jet.
Her father is David Brooks, who was then the CEO of DHB Industries, the leading body armor provider to U.S. soliders in Iraq. And he had his company pick up the tab for the party two years ago, according to investigators.
This week, the former CEO was indicted on 21 counts of alleged securities fraud, insider trading, tax evasion and obstruction of justice. Authorities say he inflated his company stock and bilked his firm out of tens of millions of dollars to bankroll his fairy tale lifestyle.
"Right off the bat, he's going to have a problem with the jury that's going to be able to comprehend spending $10 million on a bat mitzvah, when most people won't ever see $10 million in their lifetime," defense attorney Joe Tacopino said.
Brooks is accused of getting his company to pay for his ex-wife's facelift, a $200,000 Bentley, and even a $100,000 belt buckle.
The criminal charges center around the claim that Brooks cashed in $185 million worth of stock just before the New York Police Department recalled 6,000 of his company's defective vests.
Tests showed that a quarter of the Interceptor vests worn by New York's finest were defective.
"This is another form of corporate irresponsibility, of where corporate officers knowingly ship defective products in order to boost the revenue of the company to benefit themselves financially," shareholders' attorney Bill Lerach told ABC's Brian Ross in 2002.
In 2004, DHB Industries was awarded a $200 million contract to provide body armor to the U.S. military for soldiers fighting on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But in May of 2005, the Marine corps announced a recall of more than 5,000 DHB Industries vests as government tests showed the critical life-threatening flaws.
If convicted, Brooks could spend rest of his life in jail.
I'm all for supporting the troops...but your statement is anti-capitalist bilge.
There would be NO defense industry if profit was banned.
One can support the troops and still make a profit.
How you find the two to be incompatible is beyond my comprehension.
Excuse me, thought I was posting in a forum where patriotism might trump individual gain in a time of war...
Guess those values have become outmoded..
“Do we know if any Marine died as a result of these defective vests? If so why not charge him with negligent homicide?”
We do not know of any such cases. The untested vests were in the pipeline and recalled before they got to the sandbox, I think. But he was all over the “lobby the congress” scene that we were even questioning the company’s integrity. Scumbag.
TC
Of course patriotism triumphs here. But it is patriotism toward our FREE nation and our FREE MARKET economy. How the heck do you expect a company to stay in business if you do like the Soviets and abolish profit and incentive? Who is going to stay up late, miss their kids recitals and family vacations and work weekends for that “breakthrough” in armored vests that will make their product better than all the others and likely to win the contract, if they can’t make any money at it?
The mentality you expressed above is at the very heart of socialism. “How dare someone profit when there is a good cause?” If you start down that road, everything will be defined as a patriotic good cause. What about the clothes the soldiers wear? What about the underwear they bought at JC Penney’s? What about their ipods for those long boring treks? How about their computers and their vehicles. What about the food they eat? How dare those farmers and growers profit when they could be patriotic about it all???
Terrorism is arguably at least as big an enemy to our freedom as Fascism ever was. But look around..does anyone feel that we are at war? Over 50% of this country wants us to start pulling out of Iraq - the frontline of the war on terror. Most of the country simply isn't involved, doesn't appear to think that this is a big deal, seems to think that the war was won when Saddam was caught..
... and the contractors scrambling for a slice of the action like they were on the trading floor of the Dow, like business as usual, supplying our brave troops no more different than any other investment bonanza, contributes to this blase attitude.
When supplying our troops on the frontline of the world war on terror is treated like just another opportunity for a financial "killing", sooner or later greedy types like the aggressive Mr. Brooks are going to cut corners and undermine our efforts.
WE ARE AT WAR... Are the efforts of our brave troops somehow less because they aren't in this for profit? War time is different than peace time.
The point is that the 10 mil was other people’s money he had stolen.
So those who work in defense industries should be limited in their ability to make a profit, while those who work in other industries can just plug along as if no war is on?
To be consistent, shouldn’t all profits and salaries above subsistence level be suspended until the war has been won?
I understand that
Still, how many soldiers died because of defective equipment he sold the DOD?
Even one would pale in comparsion
Dad should be in prison just for that.
True enough.
No, we're not.
Study FDR's EOs between December 8, 1941 and February 15, 1942.
Full press censorship. 24/7 government propaganda. Enemy aliens arrested, incarcerated, deported. Control of all industry. Rationing of critical supplies. Limits on private use of motor vehicles. And on, and on, and on.
THAT'S how you take the nation to war.
My point was that during WWII ALL major industries were pressed into service - Ford retooled to make tanks, nylon was diverted from hose to parachutes, etc. etc.
The entire country went to war back then. Now we let a few companies rake up profits while we go into debt to the Chinese. There is no call to shared sacrifice, so most of the country is oblivious to the war effort, and they DO "plug along as if no war is on". Does it then surprise anyone that most people (by the polls) feel that the war is over and we should pull out of Iraq?
No. Your post shows that you do not understand the difference between profiteering and profits.
Profiteering is the making of excessive profits on goods in short supply.
You're advocating the abolition of profits.
There is a major difference.
No FReeper is supporting profiteering.
We're just astonished that you're promoting Marxism as the solution and calling it patriotism.
Call me old-fashioned, but war times are different than peace times..
A dollor bill is six inches long, the average male member is also six inches long, thus I beleive 50 cent is aptly named !
I agree with you, we are not a nation at war. We pussyfoot around the issue.
War was not declared nor have we acted as such as a nation.
Guess they needed to fly those planes into Starbucks !
And then tell me why stockholders invest in these companies? A reasonable profit made by delivering needed, quality gear to our soldiers is an honorable thing.
Profit made by delivering junk is not. The two are different.
I suppose you wouldn't pay your doctor for a life saving operation either, or the pharmaceutical company that made the drugs to cure your illness, since you might think it wrong to profit from your illness.
The issue here isn't profit, it's a matter of cheating to get that profit. I see no reason not to reward folks who come up with things that save soldiers lives, nor in hanging those who cost soldiers their lives.
$10 Million for a Bat Mitzvah? Sounds like a scene from the movie “Keeping up with the Steins”.
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