The Owner of Vector Arms (the Uzi manufacturer) Ralph Merrill and store manager Rex Podrizki were federally indicted. www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressReleases/080620-02.html www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/asia/27ammo.htm?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin He's selling his expensive car (presumably to cover lawyer fees). Car on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars...ddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320264836727&
<TABLE class=tborder id=post298669 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD class=alt1 id=td_post_298669>http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressR...080620-02.html MUNITIONS SUPPLIER, HIS COMPANY, AND OTHERS INDICTED FOR LYING TO ARMY ON GOVERNMENT MUNITIONS CONTRACT June 20, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Sharon Woods, Director, U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations in Miami, Brigadier General Rodney Johnson, Commanding General, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, and Paul Phillips, Regional Director, Defense Contract Audit Agency, announced today that AEY, Inc. (AEY), Efraim Diveroli, David Packouz, Alexander Podrizki, and Ralph Merrill were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on wide-ranging fraud charges in connection with their provision of ammunition to Afghanistan. More specifically, Count 1charges all defendants with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by making false representations to the government and by conspiring to commit procurement fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371 (Count 1). Counts 2 through 36 charge defendants AEY and Efraim Diveroli with making false statements to the U.S. Army regarding the country of origin of the ammunition, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. Lastly, all defendants are charged with procurement fraud against the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1031 (Counts 37 - 71). As alleged in the Indictment, AEY is a munitions supplier, with offices in Miami Beach, FL. Defendant Efraim Diveroli is the President of AEY, and manages and directs the business operations of AEY. Defendant David Packouz was a Director and Vice President of AEY. Defendant Alexander Podrizki was an agent of AEY, stationed in Tirana, Albania. Defendant Ralph Merrill was a business associate of Diveroli, who provided financial and managerial assistance to AEY. According to the Indictment, on July 28, 2006, the Department of the Army (Army) issued a solicitation requesting bids on a contract to provide various types of ammunition to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. AEY submitted a bid and represented to the Army that it could fulfill the requirements of the contract and procure the ammunition for $298,000,000. Based on that bid, the Army awarded the contract to AEY on January 26, 2007. Under the terms of the contract, AEY was required to certify that it was providing serviceable and safe ammunition. The contract also prohibited delivery of ammunition acquired, directly or indirectly, from a Communist Chinese military company. The Indictment alleges that the defendants submitted documents to the Army falsely attesting that the ammunition they were providing was manufactured and originated in Albania, when, in fact, the ammunition came from China. To effectuate the scheme, defendants Efraim Diveroli, David Packouz, and Alexander Podrizki would direct others to assist in the packaging of ammunition to be delivered to Afghanistan, and would provide instructions to remove Chinese markings from containers in order to conceal that the ammunition was manufactured and originated in China. With each shipment, Diveroli, on behalf of AEY, would falsely certify in a Certificate of Conformance that the ammunition being furnished conformed with the contract requirements, and that the manufacturer and point of origin of the ammunition was the Military Export and Import Company (hereinafter referred to as MEICO) in Tirana, Albania. These false statements in the Certificates of Conformance are the basis for Counts 2- 36 of the Indictment against AEY and Diveroli. Each of the 35 Certificates of Conformance accompanied a separate shipment of ammunition. Upon delivery of each shipment of ammunition, defendant Efraim Diveroli would submit and cause others to submit to the Department of the Army, a copy of the Certificate of Conformance and an invoice for payment to AEY. Based on these false submissions, the Army paid AEY approximately $10,331,736 for 35 shipments of Chinese ammunition. These submissions and resulting payments to AEY are the basis of Counts 37- 71. If convicted of the charges in Counts 1 through 36, each defendant named faces a maximum term of imprisonment of up to five years per count. If convicted of the charges in Counts 37 through 71, each defendant named faces a maximum term of imprisonment of up to ten years per count. <!-- / message --></TD></TR><TR><TD class=alt2> </TD><TD class=alt1 align=right><!-- controls --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
I bet it takes more than these 2 cars for the lawyer's fees; $125K for the Lamborghini and $39K for the Prowler. Damn that's pretty ballsy, anybody know if anybody has ever defrauded the guberment on such a scale. Get a Vector Arms Uzi while you can
It looks as if these guys are going to do some serious time behind bars. How did they think that they could get away with something so obvious.
Vector FA Uzi - check Vector supressor - check Vector .22 kit - check Vector 9mm 70rd drum - check All I need is the .45 kit!
Hello, New to the forum thanks just to add to Ralph Merrill stuff for sell he also owns the 45 Luger Carbine. 1908 Luger Carbine, 100% original, 45 cal. Only known 45 Luger Carbine know. GL proofed. One of one. For Sale: $1,000,000.00. The Ulimate Collection Item. You can E-mail Ralph @ ralph@worldoflugers.com I did some part time welding for vector arms. it was a sweat shop for his for his regular workers. here is some history on the gun. There were only a few .45 ACP Luger pistols made for the 1920 army trials. Serial # 1 and 2 were actually submitted for the trials. Only #2 is still in existence as serial # 1 was severly used and abused during the tests and was probably discarded afterwards. Heinrich Hoffmann, an engineer at DWM at the time claimed no more than 6 were produced in .45 ACP. It is claimed that serial # 4 was found in Germany in 1945 and brought to the U.S. as a souvenir, but no photos or other documentation have surfaced. The Robert W. Norton Gallery in Louisiana has one example. The pistol has no serial # on it, but the magazine is marked with a numeral "3". Ralph E. Shattuck of Peoria, AZ has a .45 ACP Luger Carbine serial # 21 in his collection, but the documentation authenticating it as being a genuine DWM production gun have not been made public. This gun is currently for sale with an asking price of $1,000,000. also.
I wouldn't buy one now. I wouldn't support a company that pulled this kind of garbage no matter "rare" a vector might become.
the millon dollar 45 lugar carbine is known to be a phney. A guy named Martz used to make some from juck lugars and did very nice work, but he never claimed that they were original
So apparently Diveroli gets 4 years for possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition as a previously convicted felon and all charges on the government contract front are dropped. Interesting. And how exactly does the US Army start up a multi-million dollar contract with a known felon? I suppose he got a "waiver"? Hilarious. All of you guys calling him a fraud and a cheat aught to check the facts before laying judgment. The US government is the only criminal organization, and they hate competition.
I got rid of my Uzi and all the gear because the wife wanted to buy a car. Sold the damn stuff for $7500 and now we don't have the money or the car. I didn't shoot it much but I hate it that it's gone and I won't be able to get another one.
That sucks. Had a similar situation where the woman I lived with was always telling me what 'we' could do with the money if I sold some of my gun stuff. I never went for it and a couple years later, she was gone and I still had my stuff. That's a real nice looking blade you have on your avatar.
