Japanese company agrees to pay $66 million in defective body armor scandal

By Chris Eger

A settlement agreed to in federal court this week brought some closure to ongoing litigation over the use of a controversial synthetic fiber in defective ballistic vests.
The Department of Justice announced the settlement with Japanese textile giant Toyobo over alleged false claims made concerning the long-term effectiveness of Zylon, a polymer material, in body armor. The feds will receive $66 million from the company while the U.S-based whistle-blower who shined light onto the potentially ineffective vests will pocket $5.7 million.
“Bulletproof vests are sometimes what stands between a police officer and death,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement. “Selling material for these vests that one knows to be defective is dishonest, and risks the lives of the men and women who serve to protect us.”
The case, first filed against body armor manufacturer Second Chance in 2004 by DOJ and Dr. Aaron Westrick, a concerned former employee of the body armor company, and later amended to include Toyobo, saw more than 600 court filings in the past 15 years. As claimed in court documents, Zylon, originally invented by the Air Force with the rights later sold by Dow to Toyobo, was shown in internal testing by the Japanese company as

Source: Guns.com