David H. Brooks, the founder of DHB Industries Inc., a company  that supplied body armor to the U.S. military was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in a $200 million fraud scheme.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal by Kristin Jones:

“DHB Industries made body armor that protected the men and women of the U.S. military, who risk their lives to keep us safe,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch. “To David Brooks, it was merely a vehicle for plunder and a means to feed his own greed.”

Mr. Brooks was convicted of stealing more than $6 million from the company to finance a horse-racing business, and to buy a luxury car, plastic surgery for his wife, a burial plot for his mother, $40,000 in leather-bound invitations to his son’s bar mitzvah, and a $101,000 belt buckle adorned with diamonds, sapphires and rubies.

He was also found guilty of accounting fraud intended to increase DHB’s profits and inflate the value of its inventory, the Justice Department said. After the company filed reports based on his manipulations, Mr. Brooks sold shares before the stock price plummeted and the company was delisted from the American Stock Exchange, the Justice Department said.

Well, I guess one can argue that Al Capone when to jail for tax fraud rather than murder, but David Brooks has more than corporate and securities fraud to answer for by supplying our military with defective body armor.   While Mr. Brooks may now be behind bars, the Defense Department still insist on hiding the truth of the defective Body Armor supplied to our brave young men and women serving in harm’s way.

A sad comment on our leadership by not getting the bottom of this sad story of our military procurement system.