Wedtech Reportedly Forged Forms to Bill Army

Defense contractor Wedtech Corp., in an effort to ease its financial problems, gave the federal government forged invoices to collect cash advances of $6 million, the company’s lawyer was quoted as saying in a report published today.

The attorney, Arthur Siskind, confirmed that the company forged invoices to the Small Business Administration in 1981 and 1982, to show that the government owed the company money for costs run up in manufacturing equipment for the Army, the Daily News said.

But Siskind said that since Wedtech did not submit additional bills when the costs actually were incurred, the government was not overcharged, the News reported.

“The action by Wedtech had been taken out of a simple need for capital,” he said, according to the newspaper.

The forged invoices are the latest disclosure about Wedtech, subject of a variety of federal and local investigations into its use of political influence.

Wedtech, a small machine shop that grew into a $100-million-a-year defense contractor, is being examined to see whether it improperly portrayed itself as a minority-owned company so it would be eligible for certain contracts.

Its ties to several political figures here and in Washington--including Lyn Nofziger, longtime adviser to President Reagan--also are being investigated. Nofziger, now a Washington public relations executive, is under federal scrutiny for alleged lobbying of his former White House colleagues on behalf of Wedtech, in violation of conflict-of-interest laws.

Although Army files show that Army Secretary John O. Marsh Jr. wrote Wedtech in 1981 that its bid to manufacture small engines for the Army exceeded the fair market price by “nearly 100%,” the Bronx company eventually got the contract, the Daily News reported.

Siskind said the SBA and defense authorities were informed of the forgeries by Biaggi & Ehrlich, the former law firm of Bronx Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.). Agencies took no action to penalize Wedtech, the News reported.