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Bergen defense contractor admits selling knockoff parts for U.S. military vehicles

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The majority owner of a Bergen-based defense contractor admitted today that his firm sold the government used brake drums and other parts it passed off as new — beginning the day after 9/11 — for use in military operations. Turkish national Hace Galip Dedekarginoglu, of Teaneck, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Newark on behalf of New York Machinery, originally from Little Ferry and now in Leonia.

Photo Credit: taken at Dedekarginoglu’s factory in Turkey

Bottom photo: taken at Dedekarginoglu’s factory in Turkey

Overall, the broken contracts cost the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) $163,082 in losses, which will be repaid under the plea agreement, a spokseman for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.

In addition, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton will determine the fine — expected to be near a half-million dollars — on March 21, 2011.

But there’s more:

The government got NYM to agree to pay $200,000 to dismiss charges for violating the federal False Claims Act by substituting the parts. That likely won’t be a problem for Dedekarginoglu, whose 27-year-old company raked in more than $1 million in government contracts.


CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM had the original story: Feds: Contractor tried conning U.S. military with knockoffs

The DoD contracts were to provide replacement parts primarily for use in military tow tractor-trailers. Under a contract that ran through March 2005, the parts were to be “exact products” manufactured by or under the direction of an original equipment manufacturer, said Fishman’s spokesperson, Rebekah Carmichael.

NYM substituted knockoffs manufactured in Turkey and re-labeled to look like the genuine “made in the USA” article, according to a team of federal prosecutors who assembled the case: Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Rose, Christine Magdo, and Joyce Malliet.

The company knew the specs of the items after another operation owned by Dedekarginoglu

, 57, bought genuine parts from the U.S. that were manufactured in Turkey, the team said through the spokesperson. NYM then simply “reverse-engineered” copies of the OEM parts, they said.

A former NYM employee — 34-year-old Atilla Kan of Ridgefield Park — already pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and would have testified for the government had the case gone to trial. Kan bid on the contracts and then sold the dummy parts to the U.S. and Turkish governments.

Fishman credited special agents of the DoD’s Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Dauenheimer is handling the civil settlement.


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