Woonsocket Textile Company Illegally Sold Foreign-Made Goods To Department Of Defense

WOONSOCKET, RI — A Woonsocket textile manufacturing company and the U.S. Attorney's Office came to a settlement in a civil False Claims Act investigation, accusing the company of selling non-American-made goods to the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Hyman Brickle & Son, Inc. sold woolen blankets to the Department of Defense, despite knowing that the blankets were produced using labor from India, rather than U.S. labor, as federal law requires. Through legislation known as the Berry Amendment, Congress requires that textiles sold to the Department of Defense be produced in the United States, including using U.S. labor for the production of the textiles.

Hyman Brickle’s sale of these nonconforming goods to the Department of Defense violated the False Claims Act, federal authorities said.

As part of the False Claims Act settlement, Hyman Brickle will pay $492,236 to the federal government, representing full restitution for the cost of the product paid for by the U.S. government and double the damages on the relevant claims.