Former Vendor Sues Manufacturer Charging Misconduct
A former vendor of for Prioria Robotics has filed a lawsuit against the UAV maker, saying it has bilked the U.S. government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The suit, filed by Condor Aerial, accuses Prioria of misrepresenting specs of the Maveric microdrone to the military and other government agencies, and sold refurbished units as new in the contract.
Motherboard reports that Prioria had contracts worth nearly $241,000 per Maveric system with The Air Force, Navy, Army, NASA, and other government agencies. Condor was a licensed retailer for the consumer version of the aircraft.
In its lawsuit, Condor says that the company is essentially selling a hobbyist drone to the government at government contract prices. In the filing, Condor asserts that the Maveric “in some aspects, used technology and had capabilities similar to [unmanned aerial vehicles] that could have been purchased in hobby industry channels or on Amazon.com. In fact, some hobby fixed wing foam platforms offered greater flight time with higher resolution cameras for under $5000 that equaled or even exceeded those of the [Maveric] system."
Condor has submitted sworn statements from a former sales manager who worked in close proximity to CEO Bryan da Frota. The sales manager, Patrick Seidel, said in a sworn statement that the the CEO and others at Prioria "knowingly, deliberately, and purposely falsely represented the technology and capabilities of the Maveric UAS to Condor Aerial, as well as federal and external organizations."
Condor also alleges that Prioria sold units it had returned to the manufacturer because of defects to the U.S. Army as a new aircraft. Condor initially demanded $186,000 from Prioria ... triple damages ... for an aircraft it said was two years past its delivery date. Prioria a month later filed a one-page lawsuit saying condor owed them $90,000 for a Maveric system it had sold the previous November, but did not provide documentation for the sale.
Prioria has reportedly not responded to Condor's filing.
(Image from file)