Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office Thwarts Military Scheme Based Out Of Turkey

U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak is seen following a news conference in 2019. Pak says an Atlanta man was part of a conspiracy to steal military technology.

Ron Harris / AP Photo

An Atlanta man will spend more than 2 years in prison for his part in a multi-million dollar contracting fraud scheme based out of Turkey.

Georgia U.S. Attorney BJay Pak says 61-year-old defense contractor Batur Ustol was part of the conspiracy to steal military technology.

The FBI says Ustol and several other contractors produced faulty parts in Turkey and sold them to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Officials say the defendants were able to apply for and obtain blueprints for military schematics.

Then they downloaded thousands of diagrams for parts and falsely claimed to the DOD that the parts had been lawfully made in the United States.

DOD testing found the parts could have seriously injured or killed U.S. military personnel had they been put into production.

WABE’s Maria White Tilman contributed to this report.