Indictment alleges business owner defrauded U.S. gov't.
AWall Township businessman and two of his companies were indicted on July 16 by a federal grand jury sitting in Trenton on mail fraud and false statement charges for allegedly defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense in connection with approximately $80,000 worth of parts for weapons and combat systems.

According to the indictment, Demetrios Tsoutsas, 74, of Freehold, operated a manufacturing and parts assembly business in Wall Township, which was the base of operations for at least five registered companies that Tsoutsas operated out of the same Asbury Road location.

Tsoutsas owned and operated the defendant companies Ulysses Incorporated ("Ulysses") and Melstrom Manufacturing Corporation ("Melstrom"), and the unindicted companies Pluto Industries Inc. ("Pluto"), D&A Electronics Manufacturing Incorporated ("D&A"), and Super Tech, LLC ("Super Tech").

Melstrom, Ulysses, Pluto and D&A were parts suppliers, and supplied parts to various government and private customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense.

The nine-count indictment alleges that Tsoutsas schemed to enrich himself and the companies he controlled by selling parts, including critical application items that are critical to the safe operation, equipment effectiveness, or mission performance of a military system, that did not meet contractual requirements or were not tested in accordance with contractual requirements to the Department of Defense.

The indictment alleges that in fulfilling Department of Defense contracts, Tsoutsas and the defendant companies falsely represented that the parts they were selling met all contractual requirements.

Instead, Tsoutsas and the defendant companies knew the parts they were selling had not been tested in accordance with the contract or would not pass contractually-required tests.

Counts one through seven, which charge mail fraud, each carry a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Counts eight and nine, which charge making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement in connection with a matter within the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, both carry a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service in Edison and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Pauxtent River, Md.