Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 16, 1994                   TAG: 9405160104
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NORTH USES GHOSTS OF HIS PAST TO SELL BULLETPROOF VESTS

But a close look at North's business - manufacturing bulletproof vests - finds ghosts from his complicated past. To sell vests, North draws on fund-raising, the same method he used to support the Nicaraguan Contras. And his company trades on his celebrity from a period that he now calls "ancient history."

North is co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Guardian Technologies International Inc. Since its founding in 1989, Guardian's high prices have hampered its ability to win bids to outfit police departments, according to industry executives and government procurement agents. North has had more success selling vests through fund drives organized by his staunchest supporters: police officers.

The money in those drives comes from everyday citizens who are solicited to give $25 toward buying a vest for an officer. The approaches in three states have been made by a professional fund-raising company that retains a portion of the donations. That company has paid $9,000 to settle one state's complaint about its tactics, and it is under investigation elsewhere.

The fund drives generally have worked like this: A fund-raiser named Jack Byron approached police groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police and suggested he help them raise money for vests. His company, B&B Presentations, then telephoned citizens for donations. The solicitors didn't cite a brand in their appeal, but in the three campaigns Byron has raised money only for Guardian vests.

North has promoted the fund-raising at news conferences and rallies. Donated money - less what Byron retains - has bought Guardian vests that police groups then have given free to officers who, according to North, could not otherwise have afforded them.

But all has not gone as planned.

An ongoing vest fund drive by the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police frequently has supplied vests to officers who already had one through their departments, or whose departments could have afforded vests but took the donated equipment because it was free, said chiefs for the departments.

Fund-raising has been a mainstay for North.

When Congress wouldn't fund the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, North used private fund-raising to channel donations to companies he helped control to broker weapons to the Contras. Two fund-raisers, who kept more than half the money raised, later pleaded guilty to fraud. In addition, a special prosecutor determined that the private companies charged the Contras "high mark-ups."

Virginia residents who complained to state regulators about Byron's fund-raising thought Byron's costs and profits seemed high.

North's competitors contend that his vests are expensive and that the higher price means fewer vests reach officers.

North declined to be interviewed. But in written responses to some of the questions from The Washington Post, he said he did not have "a personal business relationship" with Byron, noting that Byron was a "subcontractor" to the Fraternal Order of Police.

North wrote that the price of his vest is not inflated because it is "the lightest and most ballistically protective concealable armor available. . . . Our customers obviously agree that our product is superior to the less expensive ones."

The Virginia vest campaign, which solicits from among 1.8 million state residents according to the fund-raising contract, has raised nearly $800,000 in the last two years, according to the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police. Of the $485,980 raised in the first year, Byron's company kept $313,406 with the rest set aside for vests, according to records of the Division of Consumer Affairs and the Fraternal Order of Police. Figures for the second year are unavailable.

Byron, of Lynchburg, declined comment, except to write in a letter that "B&B Presentations Inc. . . . denies any inference of misrepresentation or any other allegations that have arisen."

In his responses, North wrote the vest campaign was "for individual officers who would otherwise be unable to obtain the kind of quality equipment we make."

Of 291 officers who got free vests as of last September, more than 100 would have had to do without vests if not for the donations; 65 belonged to departments that had already issued other brands; and 63 vests went to officers whose chiefs said in interviews that their town could have afforded vests.