The three owners of HS Produkt have been arrested today in Karlovac, Croatia. Ivan Zabcic, Marko Vukovic and Tomica Godec have been charged with taking bribes and abuse of office in the Daimler AG kickbacks case. HS Produkt is best known for manufacturing the XD and XDm lines of pistols for Springfield Armory, and is currently working on the VHS Assault Rifle . . .

Zabcic, Vukovic and Godec also own HS Produkts sister company IM Metal, which was implicated in the Daimler case by US courts. It is believed that IM Metal was instrumental in fixing an 85 million Euro tender for the procurement of 210 fire engines for the Croatian Ministry of internal affairs.

The deal between the then German-American concern DaimlerChrysler and IM Metal was allegedly worth more than 3,2 million Euros in kickbacks, and Daimler confessed to bribing Croatian public officials with 4,7 million Euros. It is still unclear where the rest of the money went.

After the allegations first went public in April last year IM Metal quickly changed their name to Flammifer to avoid fallout.

The former Croatian ministers of finances, internal affairs and the economy also participated in the deal, but have denied involvement in any illegal activities.

Whether the arrests will affect production and how is currently unknown.

 

 

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12 COMMENTS

  1. I think it was two or three years ago at the Shot Show where there were multiple arrests dealing with illegal bribes. I suspect there is a lot of this going on. I used to work in an industry where people always pushed the limits of what was allowed. When there is a lot of money on the line, you will find out what people are capable of.

  2. I’m so glad that this never happens here in America. (I mean paying the kickbacks in Euros)

  3. Hey, if it was our politicians involved, they’d be going to the “golf course” level I federal prisons! I just love government corruption! They are the clowns who will leave us in a nuclear war to “Let our democratic government survive.” I’ve read the WWIII Nato plans from the 80’s-it is soooooooooo inspiring!

  5. To be both descriptive and amusing, IM Metal should have changed its name to Flim-Flammifer.

    • Good thing we’re not “TheTruthAboutNukes.com”…the name of the city where the reactors melted down is FUKUSHIMA. I seriously can’t believe NObody’s riffed on that one yet. I mean, fish…meet barrel. Barrel…meet fish.

  6. Ruh Roh…

    A sting was executed at the SHOT Show 2-3 years ago against 20 or so S&W employees. I expect that most of the international firearms trade does business that way so there may be plenty of rotten pickins left to go.

  7. I feel traumatized and as if I am an affected party. Only a few sample firearms will ease the trauma…

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