Engineer Acquitted in Defense Fraud Case
Cubic Corp. employee Dennis B. Fink of San Diego was acquitted Tuesday on all charges related to the alleged falsification of records on a contract for mine detectors for the Pentagon.
The federal jury deliberated less than eight hours before finding Fink, an engineer for Cubic Defense Systems, innocent of one count of conspiracy, two counts of making false statements and one count of making false claims.
“We are tremendously relieved. We were very fortunate to have a conscientious jury and they have completely vindicated Dennis,” said Juanita Brooks, Fink’s defense attorney.
Fink’s second trial on the four felony counts began March 15. His first trial ended Aug. 14 when the jury acquitted him of two counts of making false statements, but deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal on 21 related charges.
Fink, 41, was accused along with another Cubic manager, William B. Bauder, of conspiring to defraud the Pentagon by falsifying test results on AN/PRS-7 hand-held mine detectors, which worked well in the damp soil of Vietnam, but had not been effective in drier soils.
Bauder, 56, was acquitted by the same jury on 23 felony counts.
Cubic Corp., which has been implicated in the federal government’s “Operation Ill Wind” probe into defense procurement fraud, was not charged with Fink and Bauder in the indictment. However, in 1988 the firm paid the government a $7.25-million settlement to end a civil dispute over the mine detector contract.
Both Bauder and Fink remained employed by Cubic throughout their trials.
“The company has been wonderful, they’ve stood behind Dennis 100%,” Brooks said.
Cubic Defense Systems was awarded an $8-million contract in 1981 to retrofit 9,500 mine detectors and produce 2,100 new detectors for the U.S. Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command.
In February, 1984, the Army terminated the contract, claiming that despite positive test results, Cubic had not improved the detector’s performance in dry soil as stipulated in the contract.
