5/8/14 - A father and son who own a Fenton business have pleaded guilty to lying to the Department of Defense about the welding of Tomahawk cruise missiles. Dennis Frederick and his son Brian Frederick own Precision Metal Spinning in Fenton, which was contracted by the federal government to perform welding on the outer wall assemblies of the missiles from January of 2004 to December of 2011. Tomahawks are medium-to-long-range cruise missiles that can be fitted with a number of different warheads. Earlier this year, a federal investigation uncovered that the Fredericks had been falsely claiming that they had been performing the work themselves, when in fact they had been outsourcing the work to a different organization that was using a sub-par welding standard. Court documents indicate Precision Metal Spinning had difficulty meeting the specifications of the welding as outlined in its subcontract. Yesterday, the two men pleaded guilty to making false statements to the government. As part of their plea agreement and for cooperating with investigators, the government is recommending prison time not exceeding 18 months, as opposed the usual 30-37 months. The two men would also be ordered to serve their sentences at different times, which would allow Precision Metal Spinning to continue serving its non-government customers. They will also likely be ordered to pay the more than $1.6 million in restitution being sought by the US Navy. They are scheduled to be sentenced on September 3rd. (TD)
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