WASHINGTON, D.C. — Indal Technologies has agreed to pay $3.5 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations of selling defective helicopter landing systems.
According to the DOJ, Indal, which produces the Recovery, Assist, Secure and Transverse (RAST) system for the U.S. Navy's Arleight-Burke class destroyers allowing helicopters to land on destroyers, knowingly substituted cheaper steel in its equipment for the Navy.
“When government contractors supply our armed forces with equipment that fails to meet performance standards, they not only cheat taxpayers but they put at risk the safety of our service members,” said DOJ Civil Division assistant attorney general Joseph Hunt said in a statement.
“Fraud is never a victimless crime," added Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent Leo Lamont. "This case of using inferior materials damaged the readiness of U.S. forces. The victims are not just our men and women in uniform, but all American taxpayers."
Indal, based in Ontario, Canada, and a division within Curtiss-Wright Corporation, has produced the RAST system for the U.S. Navy since 1970, according to the DOJ. The RAST system includes a device that locks a hovering helicopter onto a series of steel track plates into a shipboard hangar.