LOS ANGELES – A jury convicted the former CEO of the Simi Valley-based battery distributor Powerline Inc. of defrauding the government by selling more than $2.6 million in cheap, knock-off batteries to the U.S. Department of Defense
Didier De Nier, 63, lived in Simi Valley, which is in Ventura County, until he fled the United States nearly two years ago. He was found guilty Wednesday of five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
De Nier will be sentenced in August. He is facing up to 110 years in federal prison. De Nier was a fugitive from justice when he was arrested in his yacht as he sailed to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
From 2004 to 2011, Powerline, which also did business as Birdman Distribution Corp, sold more than 80,000 batteries and battery assemblies that the Navy used for emergency back-up power aboard nuclear aircraft carriers, minesweepers and ballistic submarines. The batteries were installed on numerous Naval vessels, according to authorities.
According to the evidence presented during a six-day trial, De Nier and his employees disguised the bogus nature of the batteries by affixing counterfeit labels that falsely identified the batteries as originating from approved manufacturers. But the batteries were made in China.
Powerline employees also used chemicals to remove “Made in China” markings from the knock-off batteries.
De Nier’s ex-wife Lisa De Nier, who had served for decades as Powerline’s vice president of sales, plead guilty in this case to conspiracy to defraud the government.
Lisa De Nier faces up to 10 in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced later this year.
Shortly after federal agents searched Powerline’s offices in July 2012, De Nier fled the Los Angeles area to live aboard his yacht near the Caribbean island of St. Martin, a French territory.
In October 2013, federal agents arrested De Nier, a dual French-U.S. citizen, after he had sailed on his yacht to the U.S. Virgin Islands.