NEWBURY PARK : Teledyne Agrees to Pay $500,000 Fine

Teledyne Industries Inc. has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine to settle federal civil claims that its Newbury Park plant fraudulently performed tests and substituted faulty parts for electronic equipment sold to the Navy, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The settlement wraps up another in a series of defense fraud cases against Teledyne’s Electronics Systems division in Newbury Park, costing the company a total of $16.91 million.

In this case, the Justice Department accused Teledyne of failing to properly check out radar test sets used by the Navy to calibrate and maintain electronic equipment that warships count on to identify aircraft as friendly or hostile.

The identification systems, produced by Teledyne and other defense contractors, are important because they help ships and aircraft identify aircraft and thus avoid casualties from friendly fire.

In November, 1991, Teledyne informed the Defense Department’s inspector general of production irregularities in its production of the test kits, Justice Department officials said. The company made the disclosure under the Defense Department’s voluntary disclosure program that can hold the company without penalty if such irregularities are disclosed.

But a subsequent investigation by the FBI’s Ventura office and various military investigators found more problems than Teledyne had disclosed, officials said. The investigation concluded that Teledyne substituted faulty parts in the equipment and “fraudulently performed burn-in, quality and performance tests on the radar test sets,” according to a Justice Department statement.

Given the results of the investigation, the Justice Department decided to pursue a civil fraud allegation against the company, officials said.

Rosanne O’Brien, a Teledyne spokeswoman, said the settlement has been expected since last summer, when the company set aside $11.3 million to settle a number of cases involving its facilities in Newbury Park and in Los Angeles County.