Vancouver man sentenced for selling sub-standard ballistic protective equipment to police, military

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Vancouver man was sentenced Tuesday for selling ballistic protective equipment that was sub-standard and made in China — but falsely labeled as made in the United States — to police and even the U.S. Military.

Jeffrey Meining, 42, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison as well as three years of supervised release. After facing a wire fraud charge in Nov. 2022, he eventually pleaded guilty to it in March 2023, according to officials.

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Meining’s company, BulletProofIT, sold products to everything from law enforcement agencies to fire departments to the U.S. Military at institutions across the nation, operating from 2016 to 2022. He sold items such as helmets, body armor and shields, marketing them as U.S.-made products, even though they were made in China.

Through a contract with the General Services Administration that spanned from 2016-2022, Meining sold over $1 million of supplies. However, almost $400,000 of those products didn’t meet the required safety standards, the Department of Justice said. Meining falsified safety test results when products failed, according to court documents.

In another instance, Meining sold $247,000 worth of ballistics helmets to the Mesa Police Department in Arizona in 2019. It was later discovered Meining falsely claimed the helmets met National Institute of Justice safety standards when they actually didn’t. He also signed a $32,680 contract with the U.S. Air Force to deliver helmets and equipment but made similar false statements in the contract about the products meeting NIJ standards.

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