Complaint Review: Less Lethal LLC - Cincinnati Ohio

FBI Cincinnati

Room 9000

550 Main Street

Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-8501

Homeland Security Investigations

1 North Tower Lane, Suite 1600

Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

In Re.:  Criminal Complaint of Fraud Against Law Enforcement Agencies in the Sale of Counterfeit Products of the Defunct Pepperball Technologies Incorporated (PTI) Business; Knowing and Willful Co-Conspiracy by Mr. Richard Juell, Owner of Less Lethal LLC in Cincinnati, Ohio

Criminal Offenses: 18 U.S.C. § 2. Principals, 18 U.S.C. § 3. Accessory after the fact,18 U.S.C. § 4. Misprision of felony, 18 U.S.C. § 371. Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States; 18 U.S.C. § 1341. Frauds and swindles, 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Fraud by wire, radio, or television, 18 U.S.C. § 1956. Laundering of monetary instruments, 18 U.S.C. § 2320. Trafficking in counterfeit goods or services

We are writing to complain that the Cincinnati, Ohio based business Less Lethal LLC and its Managing Member Mr. Richard Juell, is selling counterfeit products of the defunct Pepperball Technologies Incorporated (PTI).  We respectfully request that an arrest be made and the items seized so we can use the example to aid criminal prosecution in Costa Rica of a business known as Industrial Fire and Rescue Equipment, S.A. (IFR).

IFR is a Costa Rica reseller that sold 162,000 counterfeit PTI pepper balls to the Ministerio de Justicia y Paz after entering into a public bid in 2013 with fraudulent documents.

We have attached as Exhibit A the web page of Less Lethal LLC showing a red letter “P” inside a black circle followed by the word “PepperBall” with the registered trademark symbol (lesslethalproducts.com/Home.php).  There is no such registration with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  According to the criteria of the Treasury Manual of Examining Procedure, attached as Exhibit B, the use of this fake trademark on the Less Lethal LLC website constitutes fraud.

Exhibit C is the type of publicity that would be useful to our company in explaining the fraud to government officials in Costa Rica.

PRIOR COMPLAINTS AND ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS 

We have filed numerous Whistleblower Reports and Criminal Complaints regarding the ongoing criminal conspiracy and counterfeiting operation of Advanced Tactical Ordnance Systems LLC (ATO) of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  ATO is Less Lethal LLC’s supplier of the counterfeit items.  Our website a imgasa.com has a link to our web page dedicated to providing PDF copies of our major complaints.  The dedicated web page is at this link imgasa.com/PepperBall_Fraud_Alert.html. 

A number of investigations of ATO at the federal level are in progress.  For example, the FBI and the US Attorney General in Indianapolis, Indiana; the Inspector General’s Office of the General Services Administration; and the US Department of Justice (as a criminal investigation referral from the Inspector General’s Office of the US Department of Commerce (IGDOC)).  The IGDOC complaints are related to fraud upon the US Patent and Trademark Office and / or illegal exports of controlled “pepper spray powder”. 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONSPIRACY AND CRIMINAL COUNTERFEITING

Mr. Richard Juell was provided evidence that his supplier ATO was a criminal enterprise by delivery of some printed material and a DVD on January 27, 2014.  The printed material is available on our website as a PDF file.  Attached as Exhibit D is delivery confirmation to Mr. Juell.  While it is possible that Mr. Juell was convinced by ATO that our claims lack merit, it is more likely that he has now joined the conspiracy to save the part of his business that depends on sales of PTI products.

In any event, it is a fact that there are no products of PTI that are genuine because at this point the company has been out of business 2 ½ years.  Based on our research, Mr. Juell’s choice to join ATO in the fraud makes him criminally liable for at least eight of the thirteen federal offenses of ATO as shown on the attached Exhibit E.

PROFESSIONAL CON-ARTIST PATHOLOGY

AND THE END OF THE TRADEMARK DECEPTIONS

There is a bizarre professional con-artist mental illness of the conspirators at ATO.  They are fully aware that we have exposed them and that they are being investigated.  Yet, their fake website pepperball.com is still up and running, and sales continue to appear on USASpending.gov.

One reason we believe they continue to operate is that their cover stories have been successful.  For example, they told our company they had “bought Pepperball in bankruptcy”.

They have also submitted falsified documentation to attempt to have the trademarks “PEPPERBALL” and “PEPPERBALL.COM” assigned to ATO.  And, they have even had the nerve to claim that they have trademark rights in a lawsuit against Real Action Paintball, Inc.

As a strong example of their success -  amazingly - even after we notified the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) about the PTI business identify theft, the criminals still appeared in person at the SHOT Show 2014.  Our notice to the NSSF is on our webpage.

However, their cover stories have now become undone in the sense of the conspirators having “proof” of any intellectual property rights (like a copy of a lawsuit in process or a pending trademark assignment).  The lawsuit against Real Action Paintball, Inc. has been dismissed, and their false filings with the USPTO have fallen apart.  Exhibit F is the dismissal of the lawsuit so they can no longer claim they are suing to defend their intellectual property rights.  The PEPPERBALL trademark’s status is “Cancellation Pending” as shown on the USPTO’s website pasted below:

Our company has filed numerous Whistleblower Reports / Criminal Complaints with the USPTO.  We also wrote all known creditors a warning that they were going to be sued in a Qui Tam action.  Please see our warning as Exhibit G.  In response, Agility Capital LLC filed a trademark assignment to a non-existent legal entity.  So presently there is no legal assignment of any trademark “pepperball” to any legal entity or natural person whatsoever.  The USPTO website is again pasted below.

COSTA RICA AND INTERNATIONAL NEED FOR A USA ARREST AND SEIZURE

The fraud is in many countries other than the United States.  We have found resellers claiming to sell PTI products in South Africa, Australia, Peru, Chile, and Panama.  We have attached a notated internet search result as Exhibit H.

Starting with Costa Rica the fraud and counterfeiting must be exposed.  Thus far one question has been common in Costa Rica when we discuss the fraud:  If the fraud has been reported, why are they still in business in the USA?

Our answer has been to point out that the legal process in the USA can be slow.  We point out that the Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff continued for 3 ½ years after the first reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that the PTI fraud may involve as many as 35 people in 4 states.

But the situation with Less Lethal LLC and Mr. Juell is much simpler.  If he can be stopped and a press release issued, the information will certainly be very useful as confirmation that our complaints are justified.