March 28, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1429

WASHINGTON, March 27: A Florida company hired by the Pentagon to supply ammunition to Afghan soldiers sent the troops Chinese gun cartridges that were more than 40 years old, the US military said in documents seen by journalists.

The US Army has suspended the contractor, AEY Inc of Miami Beach, from all federal contracting work.

The US government also has started an investigation into privately held AEY, its president and the ammunition contract.

According to army documents, AEY and its president, Efraim Diveroli, 22, appear to have knowingly misled the military when they said last year that the ammunition supplied was manufactured in Hungary between 1965 and 1975.

“In fact the majority of the ammunition was manufactured in the People’s Republic of China between 1962 and 1974,” the army’s legal services agency told Diveroli in a letter on Tuesday notifying him of AEY’s suspension from all federal work.

If true, AEY would have violated US law that prohibits the acquisition of munitions from Chinese military companies.

The suspension is temporary, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Contacted at his Miami Beach office by telephone, Diveroli said: “I’m not making any comments. I have nothing to say, I mean, one way or another.”

—Reuters