Southern California Chemical Processing Company Pleads Guilty
On July 2, 2012, Bowman Plating Company, Inc. (Bowman), a chemical processing company located in Compton, California, pled guilty in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, to providing false statements related to chemical processing of aircraft parts sold to commercial aviation companies and to the Department of Defense.
In 2007, we began investigating allegations that Bowman received failed test results for chemical process control tests, but they had not notified its customers of the failures. In 2006, a private testing company had notified Bowman that their chemical film coating had failed the testing process. Several companies had retained Bowman to complete chemical film coating for their aircraft parts, submitting purchase orders listing the required specifications for the coating. After the coating was performed, Bowman issued certificates of conformance (COCs) certifying that the aircraft parts were processed in accordance with applicable specifications, and the parts were shipped to customers. Although the parts and the COCs had been shipped, Bowman did not notify its customers of the failure, so intermediary and end users of the parts were unaware of the testing failures.
This investigation is being conducted jointly with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.