Western Titanium Resolves Pending Charges

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Titanium, Inc. today announced that pending indictments against four current and former employees of the corporation, including CEO Daniel Schroeder, were dismissed mid-trial. These employees were charged with 19 felony counts, each related to allegations of the sale of "nonconforming" titanium.

Western agreed to plead guilty to one count of the nineteen count indictment charging the company with selling material certified to AMS 4928Q, which had been superseded by AMS 4928R, and was cut from a cross section "too large for the properties of the titanium to be uniform throughout and too large to provide the basis for informed scientific extrapolations as established by the data in the Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization handbook, formerly known as MIL Handbook 5." This mail fraud count related to a single shipment of titanium.

All other charges against the company were dismissed.

With respect to the charged count: 1) Western's customer purchased the material from Western's wholly owned subsidiary, Mach 2 Metals, and pre-approved cutting the titanium from a thicker forged block with a cross-section greater than 48 square inches, and 2) material integrity was not in question, as the titanium passed independent testing by a Pratt & Whitney LCS approved laboratory. After learning of the alleged "nonconformance," Pratt & Whitney's internal investigation revealed there was "no evidence of delivered material in P&W's products which does not meet the metallurgical and mechanical properties of the AMS material specification."

Western feels this settlement is in the best interest of the company and its customers, as it resolves all matters at issue in the investigation and avoids any further costs of litigation.

Western looks forward to working with the Air Force to ensure that this type of compliance issue does not arise again, and to demonstrate its commitment to being a responsible subcontractor to the government.

CONTACT: Nancy Luque, +1-202-841-3472, [email protected]

SOURCE Western Titanium, Inc.