Gunmaker seeks $125 million in RICO suit
BY MIKE FITZGERALD - News-Democrat
EAST ST. LOUIS -- A Millstadt gunmaker is invoking a federal racketeering statute to recover more than $125 million in damages from investors in a former Belleville firm that provides airport security training under federal contracts.
Bruce K. Siddle, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, is accusing Doctor R. Crants Jr. and his son, Doctor R. Crants III, plus three other individuals, of conspiring to loot $41 million from Homeland Security Corp., or HSC, and to defame Siddle.
Siddle and his wife, Sandra, also are asking the court to return control to him of an HSC subsidiary known as PPCT -- another federal security subcontractor with Lockheed -- which was fraudulently taken over by the defendants, according to the lawsuit.
Also named as defendants are Linda Cooper, George V. Crawford III and Lee F. Booth.
Booth, a North Carolina businessman, is working with the Crantses, father and son, by "sending e-mails and contacting people to harass and to try to intimidate Mr. Siddle and he's been doing that for some time now," said Bruce Carr, an East St. Louis attorney representing Siddle.
"They're working together to defame and hurt Bruce in any way they can," Carr said.
An attorneys for Booth did not immediately return calls Tuesday. Cooper and Crawford could not be reached for comment.
Bill Brewer, the attorney for Doctor Crants III, dismissed Siddle's allegations as "outlandish." Brewer, of Dallas, Texas, called the lawsuit "an interesting, detailed work of fiction -- it has no merit."
Siddle's 18-count lawsuit alleges the defendants committed a series of crimes including:
• Making false statements to Internal Revenue Service agents.
• Extorting property from the Siddles by threatening them with economic harm.
• Transferring the Siddles' assets through fraudulent means, including forgery.
HSC had reported cumulative revenues of $150 million from 2002 to 2006 as a subcontractor for Lockheed Martin, which had been awarded security training contracts by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
Siddle abruptly quit as chief executive of HSC, which had been based at Kings Point Racqet and Tennis Club, 7645 Magna Drive, in Belleville, in November, though he remained a major HSC stockholder.
HSC closed its offices at Kings Point in December and moved to Nashville, Tenn.
Siddle in August opened a firm called Detonics, the makers and sellers of a .45-caliber handgun, in Millstadt.
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