Background
Originally called ESI (Electronic Systems International), the company manufactured sub-assemblies for the Shrike and Sparrow missile in 1974, and just after the Vietnam war which was part of a standard arms contract for the US defense administration/ (DCAS). The company also had a commercial repair facility of two meter portable HAM/amateur radios from a company in New Jersey called Clegg, and manufactured communications helmet radios for firemen, and electronic outdoor bug zappers.
ISC was involved in two major indiscretions, for which CEO James Guerin received a 15-year prison sentence:
- It defrauded and caused the collapse of the British company Ferranti, which acquired it in 1987.
- It exported classified military technology to South Africa, which was then forwarded to third countries, notably Iraq.
ISC was acquired by Ferranti in November 1987. This merger caused the collapse of Ferranti due to the debts of its new subsidiary. Ferranti was eventually broken up and the majority of the defense subsidiaries were purchased by GEC. On October 31, 1991, ISC founder James Guerin, and 18 others were indicted by a Philadelphia Federal Grand Jury on charges of a "$ 1.14 Billion Fraud (Ferranti/ISC Merger of November, 1987)" and the illegal sales of Arms to South Africa and Iraq. in 1992. On December 5, 1991 Mr. Guerin pleaded guilty to eight charges including: conspiracy to inflate the accounts of ISC by means of non-existent international contract supported by false paperwork and circular cash transfers; conspiracy to defraud Ferranti shareholders and investors (at the time of merger with ISC in 1987); obtaining finance on fraudulently inflated share values when ISC plc was floated on the London stock exchange in 1982, and money laundering between US, UK and Swiss banks. He was sentenced to a 15-year prison term .
In 1994, after Bobby Ray Inman requested to be withdrawn from consideration as Bill Clinton's first Defense Secretary, his critics speculated that the decision was motivated by a desire to conceal his links to ISC. Inman was a member of the board of directors of the company, which was allegedly either negligent or approved the exports .
Read more about this topic: International Signal And Control
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