Former Exide Execs Found Guilty of Fraud

Two former top executives of battery manufacturing company Exide Technologies were convicted of scheming to sell defective merchandise to thousands of consumers during the 1990s.

Arthur Hawkins, 59, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Douglas Pearson, 58, of New Hope, Pa., were found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Hawkins, a former Exide president, and Pearson, the company’s former vice president of North American operations, lied to secure a large contract with Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 1994, prosecutors said.

Former Chief Financial Officer Alan E. Gauthier, 54, of Flemington, N.J., pleaded guilty to the charges early in the trial. The three were fired in 1998.

Prosecutors said they bribed a Sears merchandise buyer to sell batteries they knew were defective. Thousands of the batteries were sold nationwide under the Die-Hard brand name until Sears broke ties with the company in 1997.

The federal government launched an investigation in 1998 after a former Exide employee told officials about the payments.