Ex-prosecutor sues Glock, says gunmaker and lawyers framed him in racketeering case
Under indictment in a Glock-linked racketeering case for three years before it was resolved in his favor in 2013 by the Georgia Supreme Court, a former federal prosecutor has now sued the gunmaker.
James R. Harper III was working for Glock as an internal investigator at the time of the events at issue. His suit alleges Gaston Glock Sr., as well as Georgia companies in his international gunmaking operation and law firms for Glock, conspired to frame Harper after he uncovered a global tax-evasion scheme while working for the company, explains the Daily Report (sub. req.).
Filed Monday in state court in Fulton County, Harper’s suit seeks $10 million or more in claimed compensatory and punitive damages, according to the article.
It says Harper, working for Glock between 2000 and 2003, helped the company recover some $100 million diverted to a now-jailed lieutenant who, the article says, attempted unsuccessfully to have Gaston Glock assassinated in 1999.
But Harper’s work also alerted him to a claimed decade-long scheme to inflate manufacturing expenses that, the suit says, “skimmed billions of dollars of revenues from the sales of Glock pistols while fraudulently evading taxes on those revenues.”
This discovery resulted, according to the suit, in a Georgia grand jury indictment of Harper for a claimed $3 million theft from Glock, based on selective information provided to a Smyrna police detective and the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office by the Glock team.
“What they did was set out to destroy Jim professionally … and incarcerate him so that if he ever told folks what he knew about Glock’s tax evasion schemes, he would be discredited. He would be a convicted felon,” said William Stone of Boone & Stone, who is representing Harper in the case.
Attorneys for Glock, his companies and law firms representing them denied wrongdoing and promised a vigorous defense in comments made to the Daily Report.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-Prosecutor Accused in Alleged RICO Scheme to Bilk Corporate Client of $3M”
ABAJournal.com: “RICO Case Against Ex-Prosecutor Criminalizes $3M Glock Legal Fee Dispute, His Side Says”
ABAJournal.com: “3 lawyers facing theft and RICO cases over private investigation work for Glock get reprieve”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyers Defending Former Glock General Counsel Question Company’s Involvement in His Prosecution”
Daily Report (sub. req.): “Former Glock GC Sues Gun Company and Its Lawyers for Fabricating Criminal Case Against Him”
Updated at 12:34 p.m. to correct Harper’s middle initial.
