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Federal agents' raid baffles Conax

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By MARK DOUGLAS and MICHAEL SASSO

mdouglas@wfla.com msasso@tampatrib.com

Published: July 16, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - A defense contractor raided by federal agents Wednesday expects to reopen for business today, the general manager said.

"At this point we're just trying to determine what they're after, and we just don't know," Chester J. Claudon, general manager of Conax Florida Corp., told reporters Wednesday.

Investigators from six federal agencies closed the company's offices at 2801 75th Street N. and conducted a search, Brooke Harris with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, said at the scene.

Spokesmen for the agencies would not say what they were after.

"They are executing search warrants; other than that, there's not a whole lot I can tell you," said Gary Comerford, a spokesman in Washington for the Department of Defense's Office of Inspector General.

Roger Light, a senior materials handler at Conax, seemed baffled by the search when reached at home Wednesday.

"No one knows why, who or anything," said Light, who has been at Conax for 24 years. "We make life support. We save lives."

Conax has about 220 employees in Pinellas County, where it designs and builds safety devices for the military and NASA.

Among its products are devices that enable aircraft pilots to float free from a parachute after ejecting, said Greg Caires, a spokesman in Virginia for Conax's parent company, Cobham PLC of Great Britain.

Conax also makes a device that works with the parachute system on the space shuttle's reusable solid rocket boosters.

Conax was awarded one of its biggest contracts in August, $34.3 million from the Defense Logistics Agency for life support equipment, according to the Pentagon's Web site. The same agency also awarded Conax a $7.5 million contract in October 2007 for 5,700 seat belt kits used in Humvee vehicles.

Cobham PLC has 10,706 employees worldwide, according to a corporate filing. The aircraft, avionics and surveillance company had revenue in 2008 of about $2.4 billion. Company divisions in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were awarded $47 million in U.S. Navy contracts during the past week.

Cobham PLC's motto: "The most important thing we build is trust."

The Pinellas County Economic Development Department touted Conax Florida Corp. as one of its local success stories for adding highly paid workers to the Bay area in 2007.

Lured in part by state tax incentives, Cobham chose to fold another of its manufacturing companies, H. Koch & Sons of Anaheim, Calif., into Conax's St. Petersburg's operations.

The move created more than 30 jobs in the Bay area, said Mike Meidel, director of the economic development agency.

Harris said the agencies involved in Wednesday's search are the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the offices of inspector general with the Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Defense.

A half-dozen agents were moving between two buildings at the site Wednesday morning, wearing jackets reading, "NASA OIG" on the back.

The business is identified on signs as Cobham PLC.

Placards placed on all doors Wednesday read, "Search warrant in progress, official business only beyond this point."

By shortly after 6 p.m., all agents appeared to have left.

An employee walking out earlier said the phones had been turned off and the company's attorney had advised workers of their rights.

Asked for further comment, the employee said, "Talk to the federal agents."

Tribune reporter Elaine Silvestrini contributed to this report. News Channel 8 reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 451-2333.

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