Pentagon Lifts Teledyne Debarment : Defense: The firm’s Hawthorne-based subsidiary pleaded guilty to improperly testing electronic components.
Teledyne said Wednesday that the Pentagon has lifted the debarment order against its relays subsidiary, imposed after the Hawthorne-based division pleaded guilty to federal felony charges for improper testing of electronic components.
Teledyne President Donald Rice said the firm paid the Pentagon $3.15 million to show its “good faith” in addressing government concerns over the previous testing problems.
Rice said the payment is not a settlement of a separate whistle-blower suit that the Department of Justice joined against the firm, which is seeking damages in the tens of millions of dollars for the alleged testing fraud.
The Defense Logistics Agency, which debarred the firm last April, lifted the order nearly four months prior to its scheduled ending date because Century City-based Teledyne was able to demonstrate that it has met the agency’s ethics requirements, said Rice, a former secretary of the Air Force.
According to Rice, employment at the relays operation has dropped from 500 before the debarment order to 200 today, though some of the decline was related to lower defense spending.
“We are hopeful that we will see employment turn around and rise,” he said, though any recovery will depend on how quickly Teledyne’s electronics devices are reinstated on the government “qualified products list.”
Rice called the lifting of the debarment order “a very gratifying milestone” in the firm’s efforts to resolve a lengthy list of legal cases.
