A Hackettstown man was sentenced to four months in prison earlier this month for lying about the strength of steel used to make machine gun stands his company sold to the U.S. military.
The weak steel in the machine gun bipod assemblies and faulty head and collar joints caused the two-legged stands to fail when soldiers tried to use them, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.
Mark Colello pleaded guilty in December to two counts of making false statements, according to the online court docket. U.S. District Judge William J. Martini sentenced him on Sept. 10, 2020. Colello was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and served two years of supervised release, online records say.
Colello’s company, Applied Resources Corporation of Wharton, Morris County, made the bipod assemblies for the U.S. Army, according to charging documents. The company won the U.S. Department of Defense contract in April 2015 to make the assemblies for M249 light machine guns.
Colello falsified test results for the hardness of steel used to make the gun assemblies and for the magnetic particle inspection of the head and collar joints for the bipods, according to the news release.
Colello was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Ann Mahoney. He was defended by attorney Kevin F. Carlucci. Neither attorney responded to emails seeking comment.
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