Bucks firm charged with faking test data for Navy contract

Bristol Alloys Inc., of Fairless Hills, which sells and distributes steel and other metals to various manufacturers - including U.S. Navy subcontractors - and its president, James Bullick, were charged today with one count of major fraud against the United States.

According to the criminal information filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Bristol Alloys and Bullick, 42, fraudulently supplied a Navy subcontractor, Garvey Precision Machine Inc. of Willingboro, with metal that did not conform to military specifications and provided numerous counterfeit certifications that purportedly showed that the metal had been heat treated to meet contract requirements.

The metals had not undergone such certification, and the defendants knew no such heat treatment had occurred, the information said.

Garvey Precision supplied parts used to build, among others, Virginia Class submarines, according to the case that was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Pease.

"James Bullick and Bristol Alloys are doing everything within their powers to cooperate with the government to try to help find any nonconforming steel that made its way to the Navy, and he will continue to do so," Philadelphia criminal defense attorney Michael Diamondstein, who is representing Bullick, said this afternoon.

Under the criminal information, which means a defendant has waived indictment by a federal grand jury and is usually considered the prelude to a guilty plea, Bristol Alloys faces a maximum possible sentence of five years probation, a $5 million fine, mandatory restitution, and a $400 special assessment if convicted.

Bullick, who owns half the shares of the company, could face a maximum possible sentence of 10 years imprisonment, a $5 million fine, mandatory restitution and a $100 special assessment.    - Suzette Parmley