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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced a new
lawsuit against body armor manufacturer
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ShotStop Ballistics from Stow, Ohio for
allegedly importing Chinese produced plates and
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labeling them as Made in Ohio and compliant
with standards from the National Institute of
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Justice, the Department of Justice’s testing
arm.
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The lawsuit stated that the alleged actions by
ShotStop, its Valmar Studios affiliate,
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and owner Val Iliev violated.
Consumer Sales Practices Act.
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Reports of the alleged scandal surfaced in May
2024 when the US Department of Homeland
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Security warned the Akron Police Department
that its SWAT officers were using counterfeit
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ballistic plates, according to Ohio television
station WKYC.
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A police department spokesman said it was his
understanding that Shotstop was accused of
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providing the fake armor.
Shotstop had filed for bankruptcy about a week
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before the report.
Lawsuit stems from a cross-agency investigation
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regarding the allegations.
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In February, the DOJ charged Iliev with
smuggling the armor and selling it to consumers
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that included law enforcement from around 2017
to October 2023.
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In May 2023, US Customs and Border Protection
agents at a Washington port of entry stopped a
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Canadian registered truck transporting over 200
ballistic body armor plates in boxes from China.
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The agents found the boxes pre-labeled and
addressed to Valmar Studios.
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Test results revealed that the plates did not
meet NIJ standards for Level 3 protection,
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which can stop 7.62 millimeter FMJ lead core
rifle ammunition.
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The company marketed the armor as Level 3 and 4.
According to the DOJ release,
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Iliev allegedly collaborated with a Chinese
broker company to find cheap manufacturers to
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make the body armor.
The DOJ said Iliyev would tell his employees to
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attach the false labels before selling the
products.
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The agency noted that ShotStop’s US location
had no means of producing the thousands of body
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armor plates that investigators found.
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Yo’s lawsuit seeks restitution for consumers
who purchased the defective bulletproof vests.
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The lawsuit noted that realizing the extent of
consumer losses will require further legal
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discovery because the Shott’s bankruptcy filing
and the federal government’s seizure of company
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records.
I’m Nolan Bastein.
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This is manufacturing now.