UPDATE: Sept. 14 —
A federal jury on Long Island today found former Broward body armor tycoon David H. Brooks guilty of looting his former company, Point Blank Solutions, and defrauding its shareholders.
Brooks was convicted on all 17 counts of conspiracy and fraud in the $200 million corporate theft. Sandra Hatfield, Point Blank’s former chief operating officer, was convicted of 14 related criminal counts.
The trial began in January. The jury deliberated two weeks.
Brooks’ attorney, Kenneth Ravenell of Baltimore, Md., said Tuesday evening that he would not comment on the verdict.
Ravenell said, however, that the jury still has work to do deciding how much Brooks must forfeit to the government.
“It’s not over yet,” he said.
[Please scroll down to read Broward Bulldog’s July 8 story about the trial]
David H. Brooks
By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org
The embattled founder of financially-hobbled Pompano Beach body armor maker Point Bank Solutions refers to himself on his foundation’s website as a “Living Lifesaving Legend.”
But federal prosecutors say former Broward mogul David H. Brooks is a world-class crook responsible for an audacious $200 million corporate theft.
Brooks, forced out as CEO a year before his 2007 arrest, has been on trial for nearly six months in Central Islip, N.Y. on federal fraud and conspiracy charges. A writer for Vanity Fair has called it “the year’s most entertaining trial you’ve probably never heard of.”
The grand jury’s 61-page indictment describes a corporate chieftain gone wild. It boils down to this: Brooks looted his publicly traded company and burned through its cash like it was Monopoly money.
Point Blank, once known as DHB Industries, is a leading manufacturer of “bullet, fragmentation and stab resistant apparel and related ballistic accessories.” Its products are used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as federal and state agents and local police.
In the middle of the trial, Point Blank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware claiming assets of $64 million and debts of $68.5 million. The company blamed the filing on tight credit and “legal issues from former management” that it said were costing it $600,000 a month in legal fees.
Point Blank, which once employed about 1,500 people, had 920 employees at the end of last year. Its stock, which once traded as high as $20 on the American Stock Exchange, now sells for 25 cents on the pink sheets. You can see Point Blank’s website here.
By Dan Christensen
