Glock's Secret Path to Profits-behind its success lies a troubling tale of business intrigue

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Behind the Glock phenomenon, however, is another story, one rife with intrigue and allegations of wrongdoing. The company's hidden history raises questions about its taxpayer-financed law-and-order franchise. Is this a company that deserves the patronage of America's police? Does Glock merit the lucrative loyalty of private American gun buyers? The Glock tale also underscores the difficulty U.S. regulators have overseeing complex international businesses.

CLAIMS OF SKIMMING
Allegations of corruption permeate Gaston Glock's empire. His former business associate, Charles Marie Joseph Ewert, now resides in a prison in Luxembourg, having been convicted in 2003 of contracting to have Glock killed. The murder plot—thwarted when the victim, then 70, fought off a hammer-wielding hit man—led to a trial that revealed a network of shell companies linked to Gaston Glock. That corporate web is now under scrutiny by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, according to lawyers familiar with the probe. Attorneys for Glock have acknowledged the misuse of company funds. But they blame most of the wrongdoing on Ewert, a money man known in the European press as "Panama Charly."

Among the Glock-related material the IRS allegedly is examining: boxes of invoices and memos provided by the company's former senior executive in the U.S., Paul F. Jannuzzo. Once one of the most prominent gun industry executives in America, Jannuzzo said in a federal complaint he filed last year that Gaston Glock used his companies' complicated structure to conceal profits from American tax authorities. " has organized an elaborate scheme to both skim money from gross sales and to launder those funds through various foreign entities," Jannuzzo alleged in the sealed May 12, 2008, IRS filing, which BusinessWeek has reviewed. "The skim is approximately $20.00 per firearm sold," according to the complaint. Glock's U.S. unit, which generates the bulk of the company's sales, has sold about 5 million pistols since the late 1980s, Jannuzzo estimates in an interview.

A burly man with a staccato delivery, Jannuzzo has several potential motives for airing these allegations. As a whistleblower, he is seeking a percentage of any federal tax recovery. He is also fighting embezzlement charges by his former employer. Since 2007, the company has been providing information about Jannuzzo to authorities in Cobb County, Ga., where Glock's American subsidiary is based. The Cobb County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting Jannuzzo—who once represented the company at a White House Rose Garden ceremony and on CBS' (CBS) 60 Minutes—for siphoning corporate money into a Cayman Islands account. Jannuzzo, who left the company in 2003, claims he's the victim of a vendetta.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_38/b4147036107809_page_2.htm

THAT'S why law enforcement agencies buy so many Glocks.

Never had a failure. Very reliable firearms. Still have 2 including my baby G26 Glock.

They just don't point well for me and others I know. I am old school 1911, thought I have small version for carrying.

Dirt, water...nothing bothers them. They go bang every time.

Shoots where I point it and fires when I pull the trigger.

It's the AK-47 of semiautomatic pistols.

Iraq, Australia, Austria, Georgia (Special Forces), Israel, Lithuania, Romania and Sweden to name a few.

The U.S. milspec requirement for an external hammer and/or double action (an antiquated requirement) and a manual safety (again, silly) excluded the Glock from consideration.

Some support those silly requirements based on field experience

(anecdotally, of course, since they're prohibited from carrying non-issued weapons)

...and it's pretty universally accepted that the requirements are both antiquated and ill-founded (developed by engineers, not by soldiers).

I'd bet the Glock would easily beat most for reliable operation. I'm not even sure the U.S. military ever even tested them.

I bet the Glock would've faired better in the conditions of Iraq where many of the Beretta's were failing due to the sandy conditions.

I had a Glock 34 that I put near 100,000 rounds through with only a change of a recoil spring. Never a failure. Wish I could say the same of my S&W M&P which is now at Smith & Wesson for an extractor problem after about 20,000 rounds.

The same concern would exist if Obama was white.