LOS ANGELES – The former CEO of the Simi Valley-based battery distributor Powerline Inc.was sentenced Wednesday to nearly seven years in prison for 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, 64, lived in Simi Valley, which is in Ventura County, until he fled the United States nearly two years ago. He was found guilty in April of five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
De Nier was a fugitive from justice when he was arrested in his yacht as he sailed to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“As this sentence makes clear, military procurement fraud is a serious crime, with repercussions that extend far beyond the financial losses to the Department of Defense and U.S. taxpayers,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles.
Adding, “This defendant put the safety and readiness of our nation’s warfighters at risk merely to line his own pockets. HSI will continue to aggressively target those who willfully jeopardize our nation’s security and the welfare of those devoted to protecting it.”
In addition to the prison term, U.S.District Judge Dolly M. Gee ordered De Nier to pay more than $2.7 million in restitution, mostly to the Department of Defense.
De Nier profited handsomely from his crimes – using proceeds to buy a yacht, pay his home mortgage, and to cover the cost of travel to the Caribbean and French Riviera.
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, officials said.
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.