Tuesday, November 9, 2021

In A Decades Long Fraud Metallurgist Admits Faking Strength-Test Results For Steel In US Navy Submarines

Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut in the Pacific Ocean, 2009. US Navy/MCS1 John M. Hageman 

Business Insider: Employee of US military contractor admits faking strength-test results for steel in Navy submarines, a decades-long fraud 

* A worker faked hundreds of steel-strength tests at a foundry that supplies parts to Navy submarines. 

* Elaine Marie Thomas pleaded guilty to fraud and faces up to 10 years in jail. 

* The steel her firm produced failed strength tests but she faked results so they were used in subs.

A metallurgist has pleaded guilty to decades of fraud after she admitted faking the results of strength tests of steel used to make US Navy submarines. 

Elaine Marie Thomas, the former director of metallurgy at Bradken Inc., pleaded guilty in a recent court hearing, per an announcement from the Department of Justice.  

Read more ....  

Update #1: Metallurgist admits faking steel test results for US Navy subs (BBC)  

Update #2: Metallurgist admits faking steel-test results for Navy subs (13 News Now)  

WNU Editor: OMG! She falsified reports for over 3 decades. Even though she is 67 years old, 10 years in jail is not enough.

8 comments:

Adam said...

In this case I hope they make an example of her.

Anonymous said...

Falsifying testresults for 3 decades says more than only about that 1 women. Why where there no witnesses during the tests? That is a normal procedure for metaltests in the energymarket, let alone the defencemarket. And for 3 decades and nobody found out, sleepy workers i gues.

Jac said...

Yes, it is absolutely unbelievable and I agree with 3:27. That said it is also strange that nothing bad happens. By which margin the fraud was? For what kind of function in the submarines this steel was made for?
She deserves to be strongly punished, of course, but we have to find complicity in the Navy too, because it is surprising that there was not any quality control at the reception of the product.

Anonymous said...

Parts from Bradken Inc. fails the strength tests. Bradken loses future contracts.
A new bidder wins the contract and fails or bids higher, because that is what it takes to make such steel.


Is it reasonable to expect such a grade of quality for the price?

Can such a grade of quality be consistently produced?

Without seeing the specifications or similar or exact grade of steel produced by by other companies and how much difficulty they have.

Anonymous said...

She'd be a perfect fit in the Biden administration...maybe the next border czar.

Dave Goldstein said...

Ready aim fire

Anonymous said...


I wonder if she removed all the mirrors in her home so she couldn't look at herself?

Anonymous said...

The temperature of the Arctic Ocean can reach 32 degrees F in the summer and -22 degrees F in the winter.

You would want to go past the coldest point, -22 degrees F, -for testing. Do you want to go past by 20 degrees, 50 degrees, or 80 degrees?

Here is a question for swabbie, who wants to shoot people, which might be warranted.

Where was government contracting?
Where was the contracting officer or engineers?
Are they not suppose to review test results, occasionally make site visits and observer tests?

Maybe more than one person needs to be shot?