Latham company to pay $75K for selling counterfeit batteries to Department of Defense

A Latham company must pay $75,000 after selling counterfeit batteries to the Department of Defense.

The U.S. attorney’s office tells NewsChannel 13 that Industrial Equipment and Supply Company and its principals will pay the money to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act.

The contract with IESC was for $33,928.60. It required the batteries be made by SAFT America, Inc. and in a specific way, say investigators. They say instead, the batteries came from a Singapore distributor, without verification of any affiliation to SAFT.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the batteries then caused military equipment failures, and were determined to be counterfeit.