THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502120060
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
No Navy ship has gone down at sea in two decades. That's fortunate for an unexpected reason: Thousands of lifeboats that Navy ships relied on were very sinkable.
That's what the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia charged Friday in a civil suit against the manufacturer, Rubber Crafters Inc., of Grantsville, W.Va. It had $21.3 million in government contracts to make inflatable lifeboats. The boats were found to be ``substandard and dangerously unsafe,'' the lawsuit says.
Under the federal False Claims Act, the firm could be liable for triple the contracts' value, plus fines for falsifying records, and $4 million the government says it cost to remove the boats from Navy ships.
The lifeboats were never used, and no injuries or casualties have been connected to them, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark R. Kmetz said.
Among other allegations, the company was accused of using defective fabric to make the inflatable lifeboats, and of using silicone, gum and latex to conceal pinholes, bald spots and other deficiencies. The company also was accused of falsifying documents.
No one at Rubber Crafter's headquarters answered a telephone call seeking comment Saturday.
In 1991, Rubber Crafters' president, Peter Zannoni, and other company executives were indicted on criminal charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and obstruction of justice.
Last December, the company was placed on five years' probation from government work under a plea agreement in which Zannoni admitted the company had sold leaky lifeboats to the Navy. In exchange for the plea agreement, the criminal charges against Zannoni and fellow executives were dropped. by CNB