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.
At first, I thought it was the David Brooks who writes as an op-ed columnist for the New York Times.
NYT’s David Brooks...
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/index.html
I'll believe that when I see it.
“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.”
How ironic to have Bill Lerach talking about corporate irresponsiblity. He too is headed to federal prison for his ginned up lawsuits.
Nothing funny about this. This guy sold body armor (”Interceptor”—sound familiar?) to my Marines that had not passed the tests he certified it had. He’s a war profiteer and should rot in prison.
TC
No.
I’m not laughing about that.
Of course this is deadly serious.
I was just laughing at my case of mistaken identity regarding the two David Brooks...
Must be my priorities are out of whack < / s >
We need to make an example of him. Throw away the key.
There, fixed it.
There, fixed it.
Must be a friend of the Clintons.
Thanks for posting this! I hope they barbeque his ass!
Rot in prison?
That’s good enough for me, as long as it’s Abu Ghraib.
Send this guy straight to the gray-bar hotel for a long stay...
It'd be interesting to find out who DHB Industries' biggest supporters were.
Amen. As long as our troops and their families are making the ultimate sacrifice, NONE of these contractors should be making profits - salaries and costs only.
You tell em comrade! From each according to his ability, to each according to his need!
Don't forget the investors, we'll need to lay down the law and make sure individuals and firms who back these manufacturers don't get any returns on their investments.
blade,
Nothing wrong with making a FAIR profit for responding to emergency needs. Smells like his profits were beyond fair, for a defective product. And then he had the Chutzpah to make a public spectacle over how “My product is superior to the existing” and he lied to back that up.
Tet68 (Were you there too, Tet?) has it right. The new rehabilitated Abu Graihb is too good for him. Is Alcatraz still available?
TC
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