On Dec. 22, 2014, Malcom Robert Markson, 45, of Peoria, Arizona., was sentenced to six months in prison. Markson previously pleaded guilty to the crimes of fraud involving aircraft parts and obstruction of federal investigation.
Markson is the former owner of Action Machine, LLC, a Phoenix-based defense contractor. Between 2009 and 2012, Markson obtained a series of contracts on behalf of Action Machine to manufacture wing pins for the Department of Defense. Wing pins are critical safety parts that are used to secure the wings of F-15 fighter aircraft. The contracts contained detailed design specifications that required Action Machine to use a particular type of hardened steel when manufacturing the wing pins and to subject the wing pins to a particular safety inspection process. Based on these contracts, Markson manufactured and shipped a total of 212 wing pins to the Department of Defense and supplied certification forms verifying that the wing pins met all of the design specifications. In fact, these certifications were false – some of the wing pins were made with the wrong type of steel and some had not been subjected to the required safety testing.
In 2013, the Department of Defense discovered that the wing pins supplied by Action Machine might be defective. (This discovery occurred before any accidents or injuries occurred.) Based on this discovery, auditors were dispatched to Phoenix to interview Markson and inspect Action Machine’s books and records. During this process, Markson supplied auditors with a document that appeared to show that a third-party testing company had conducted all of the necessary safety testing on the wing pins. In fact, this document was a forgery created by Markson.