The main allegation is that Heeschen and Halsey “loaned” themselves over 100 million euros from the company account and promptly spent it on playboy luxuries such as mansions, aircraft (including a $12 million Bombardier and a $5 million Challenger) and a yacht.

Better than business class - this is how arms dealers travel

These investors loaned over €150 million to Heckler & Koch Beteiligungs (HKB – the parent company of Heckler & Koch) for the usual business development purposes but were spooked when KPMG‘s financial statements for 2008 flagged up that around €30 million had been loaned directly to the shareholders, with nothing to guarantee that it would ever be paid back.

As the complaint against Heeschen and Halsey wryly notes:

[...] the purported €30 million in “loans” have no loan term and the shareholders are not required to make any payments. A “loan” that never matures and requires no payments is not a loan

Quite.

After concerns were raised by KPMG, the investors started looking into HKB’s affairs with more than a little interest. Here’s a few highlights of the allegations contained in the complaint:

Soon after the borrowed money hit the corporate borrower’s (HKB’s) bank account, however, Heeschen & Halsey, instead of using the money for HKB’s business purposes as mandated, caused that money to be transferred to themselves, and they used it for a personal spending spree that shocks the conscience. They bought mansions for over €40 million, personal jets, a helicopter, a yacht, and more, leaving HKB with insufficient funds to repay the loan. This type of misuse of the borrowed monies was explicitly prohibited by the loan agreement, not to mention any concept of corporate propriety.

And they didn’t stop there:

HKB made no fewer (and likely more) than €108 million in “loans” to its shareholders (or their controlled entities) that are not in compliance with the Loan Agreement. Considering that the original principal of the Loan was €l00 million, the current outstanding balance is approximately €151 million, and HKB has only €96,000 remaining in cash after its distributions to shareholders [...]

Oops.

Reading through the plaintiff’s submissions (case number 603522-2009 in New York County, if you’re interested), it’s hard to come away with anything other than the impression that Heeschen and Halsey are a pair of playboys who forgot the law still applied to them. The opening salvos in the case were a series of letters and meetings where the lenders repeatedly asked for clarification and Heeschen and Halsey effectively said “we’re allowed to do this, go away”. They even made a PowerPoint presentation to that effect:

[...] HKB did little more at the meeting than regurgitate its July 30, 2009 conclusory contentions, only this time via a PowerPoint presentation instead of a letter.

Presumably with some nice animated transitions between slides, to really add weight to their argument.

One of the most interesting documents is the description of the poor chap trying to serve Andreas Heeschen with papers. It seems that poor Mr Heeschen repeatedly avoided meeting the solicitor, and apparently pretended not to be at home in the naive hope that the whole thing would just go away. That’s certainly not going to happen and, whoever wins this one, either the investment bankers or the arms dealers are going to lose.

Rooftop occupation at Heckler & Koch

On May 20th at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, anti-arms-trade activist Kirk Jackson was found guilty of aggravated trespass for his part in a protest that shut down an arms company for a day. He was given a twelve month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £350 court costs.

The charge arose from a February 18th protest at the Nottingham warehouse of international arms company Heckler & Koch. Before dawn, four activists locked themselves to the gates, preventing employees from entering, while Kirk and another activist climbed onto the roof and displayed banners accusing the company of “arming repressive regimes”.

Heckler & Koch has been the target of demonstrations since 2007 when Nottingham residents discovered its presence on the Lenton Lane industrial estate. The company has a long history of supplying weapons to unstable regions, and using licensed production deals in order to evade arms embargoes. This was the first direct action taken against the company.

The offence of aggravated trespass is committed if a person does something while trespassing that is intended to obstruct or disrupt lawful activity. Kirk argued that his only intention in displaying banners on the roof was to create a photo op for the attending media but the three magistrates accepted the Crown prosecutor’s argument that he was in a “joint enterprise” with the activists locked to the gates.

The other five activists had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced on March 17th.

Heckler & Koch MD Mike Thornton

Mike Thornton, the Managing Director of Heckler & Koch was in court as a witness. He seemed nervous and avoided eye contact with the defendant and his supporters, but his performance was revealing: Having sworn to tell the whole truth, he baulked when cross-examined about his company’s activities.

Most notably, when asked if his company carried out manufacturing at its Lenton Lane industrial unit, he looked very uncomfortable and asked the magistrates “Is it necessary to discuss that?” His response confirmed campaigners’ long-held suspicions that the warehouse is used to assemble automatic weapons.

Mr Thornton was given a copy of the Shut Down H&K campaign’s December 2009 open letter to him and asked if he had seen it before. He admitted to having received the letter, in which serious concerns about H&K were raised, and to having decided to ignore it. He did however concede that citizens have a legitimate right to protest against companies such as his.

Arms dealers love euphemisms and Thornton is no exception. He described his business as “defence sector”, his lethal wares as merely “product”, and when asked about the impact of the protest, he said “we were held back in what we were trying to achieve.” Spectators were struck by the similarities between Mr Thornton and the villainous arms company execs from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s recent film Micmacs.

The 18th Feb blockade of Heckler & Koch

The prosecution’s police witness was Chief Inspector Stephen Haylett, who characterised the protest as “as good-natured as a demonstration gets”. This left the prosecution struggling to convince the court that Thornton was a victim of intimidation. In his statement, the arms company boss claimed that the protest left him feeling “vulnerable and intimidated”. “It was not known if [the protesters] were armed with any type of missiles,” said the man with the warehouse full of guns. (In fact, the reams of police video footage played in court showed the defendant wielding nothing more threatening than a cheese & pickle sandwich.)

It was Chief Inspector Haylett who told the activists on H&K’s roof that their banners would be returned, but in court he claimed that he couldn’t remember this, and so the bench agreed to the Crown’s request to destroy them. Fortunately, the campaign has already received a replacement banner from fellow anti-militarists in Germany.

Kirk and supporters outside Nottingham Magistrates' Court

Despite the disappointing verdict, Kirk remains positive. “I’m glad I took the case to trial,” he said. “Companies like Heckler & Koch are profiting from war and repression with the support of the UK government. The arms industry must be opposed.”

The six activists have been left with a total of £825 in fines plus costs but this is a fraction of the cost to the company of being closed down for a day. On an average working day, Heckler & Koch’s Nottingham unit exports over £35 000 of arms and makes more than £12 500 profit.

If you would like to help the activists to pay their costs, you can donate via the Shut Down H&K website.

The blockade at Heckler & Koch's Nottingham warehouse

On Thursday 20th May, an anti-arms-trade activist will stand trial at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court. Kirk Jackson is pleading not guilty to a charge of aggravated trespass for his part in a protest that closed the international sales office of arms company Heckler & Koch for a day.

On 18th Feburary, Jackson and another local activist climbed onto the roof of Heckler & Koch’s unmarked warehouse in the Lenton Lane industrial estate and unfurled banners accusing the company of “arming repressive regimes”.

Meanwhile, four other activists locked their necks to the security gates using D-locks and home-made arm-tubes. This action effectively shut the company down for the day, preventing it from carrying out any arms deals.

Supporters of the Shut Down H&K campaign – now in its third year – will be gathering outside the court on Wilford Street at 09:00 on Thursday with banners and placards. If you can make it, come along to show your support.

Rooftop occupation at Heckler & Koch

The six activists who blockaded the Nottingham-based arms company Heckler & Koch appeared at Nottingham Magistrate’s Court on March 17th and 18th on charges of aggravated trespass.

Five pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay between £40 and £195 each in costs and fines. The two with prior convictions were also served with 12-month restraining orders preventing them from entering Easter Park, the industrial park in which Heckler & Koch’s warehouse is situated.

The sixth activist pleaded not guilty. His trial will take place at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Thursday May 20th at 09:45. The arms company’s Managing Director will be called as a witness. A bail condition preventing the activists from associating with each other was lifted.

Saudi special forces on parade with H&K submachine guns, November 2008

Heckler & Koch is one of the world’s leading brands of small arms including assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols and grenade launchers.  The company’s UK division consists of an international sales office and distribution depot in an unmarked warehouse on Nottingham’s Lenton Lane industrial estate.

Since 2007 the company has been the target of demonstrations about the unethical nature of its business. Heckler & Koch weapons continue to be supplied to armed forces that are known to commit human rights violations. It is because of this that the six activists decided to take direct action.

H&K Managing Director Mike Thornton

In the early morning of February 18th, four of them locked themselves to the gates using D-locks and home-made arm-tubes, while the other two climbed onto the roof and unfurled banners accusing the company of “arming repressive regimes”. This direct action effectively shut the company down for the day.

The Shut Down H&K campaign is calling for people to gather outside Nottingham Magistrates’ Court from 09:00 on the morning of the trial to support the defendant and to help raise public awareness of this ongoing anti-arms-trade campaign.

Micmacs follows the fortunes of hapless video store clerk Bazil, who decides to take revenge on two arms companies – one that made the landmine that killed his father, and the other that made the bullet that nearly killed him.

Despite the heavy subject matter, this is a light-hearted, comical film. Bazil is aided by a crew of misfits, who use salvaged junk and circus skills to pit the unwitting arms dealers against each other.

In one scene, the activists have stolen a briefcase containing a sample from one of the arms companies. Back at their junkyard lair, they open it to reveal… a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.

Given that six activists are currently facing criminal charges for taking direct action against Heckler & Koch, it seems fitting that it is an H&K weapon that Jeunet uses to depict the lethal wares of a greedy and immoral arms company – an arms company that is ultimately brought down by direct action.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Micmacs is playing at Nottingham’s Broadway cinema until Thursday 18th March.

The six activists arrived at H&K’s Nottingham warehouse building before any employees turned up. Using D-locks and arm-tubes, one pair locked themselves to the staff entrance while another pair blockaded the goods gate. Meanwhile the other two gained access to the roof and hung anti-arms-trade banners on the front of the building.

One of the banners accused H&K of “arming repressive regimes” while the other, a German banner displayed in solidarity with anti-arms-trade campaigners from H&K’s home turf, translated as “arms exports are facilitating murder”.

This action succeeded in shutting the company down for the whole day. Employees and deliveries were turned away; the phones went unanswered; no arms deals were done. H&K Managing Director Mike Thornton arrived to personally ask the blockaders to leave but they remained in place until they were cut free by police specialists.

It took police six and a half hours to remove the blockade and nearly eight hours to get the protesters down from the roof. A supportive employee of the company next door to H&K tried to bring mugs of tea to the blockaders, but was prevented by police, who falsely claimed that they could use Section 14 of the Public Order Act to deny the protesters food and drink.

Heckler & Koch was targeted for this action because of the company’s sales of weapons to armed forces that are known to commit human rights abuses, and because of the company’s licensing of other countries to manufacture H&K weapons – a strategy that allows the company to evade arms embargoes and profit from the sale of weapons to repressive regimes.

These concerns were set out in an open letter from the Shut Down H&K campaign to Heckler & Koch in December 2009. The company has yet to reply to the letter.

After being removed from the arms company’s premises, the six activists were arrested and taken to Nottingham’s Bridewell police station. They have been charged with Aggravated Trespass and subjected to bail conditions that prevent them from associating with each other. Their first court appearance will be on Tuesday 2nd March at 09:45 at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

HK - Not in Nottingham!

A poster opposing Nottingham-based arms company Heckler & Koch has appeared at various locations around the city. The poster is the work of a mysterious local artist known only as Questionmarc, and was designed as “a subliminal awareness raiser that the corrupt firm continues to operate from our city.”

The poster features a picture of the rooster troubadour Alan-a-Dale from Disney’s animated Robin Hood film, but instead of holding his traditional lute, he is holding a Heckler & Koch assault rifle. He stands atop the red HK logo, under which are the words “NOT IN NOTTINGHAM” (the refrain of a lament that he sings in the film).

These posters have appeared on street furniture, walls and doors, near roads, bridges and historic locations around the city. Try to spot one when you’re out and about! And if you’re thinking of downloading the poster below, printing it out and putting some up around town, just remember that flyposting is a crime!

For more pictures, visit Questionmarc’s website.

Heckler & Koch failed to reply, so 28 days later, groups of concerned citizens set out to audit the arms company and to pose the question to the people of Nottingham: “What are they hiding?”

Registered Delivery

One group of citizen auditors headed to the arms company’s secret warehouse; the unmarked Unit 3 at Easter Park on Lenton Lane. Going by the name of Artichokes War, they carried with them a letter reiterating the need for H&K to address public concerns, and inviting the company to give any reasons for its failure to be transparent.

Nottinghamshire police usually prevent any suspected campaigners from entering Easter Park on foot, so to avoid being stopped, the auditors simply entered the industrial park in a taxi. Once inside, they auditors approached the gate of Heckler & Koch under the watchful eye of two officers.

The auditors buzzed the intercom and a female employee responded. They explained to her that they were there to personally deliver a letter. The disembodied voice asked them to just leave their letter on the ground by the car park gate, but the auditors stood their ground. This was a registered delivery, they explained. They needed a signature. The intercom spoke again: Someone would be out shortly to collect the letter.

Five minutes passed… ten minutes… No-one emerged from the arms company’s secure warehouse. The police came over to find out what the auditors were up to, then went away again.

Finally, after half an hour of waiting, one of the auditors climbed over the barbed fence into the employees car park and walked up to the front door and rang the bell. No-one responded, so he pushed the letter through the letterbox and returned to the car park gate… only to find that he had now become a prisoner of Heckler & Koch!

It seems that the arms company were so afraid of the citizens’ audit that they dared not even buzz open the car park gate. Unable to climb back out the way he had got in, the auditor remained trapped until the police intervened.

Sadly, due to H&K’s reticence, the auditors failed, not only to review H&K’s sales records, but even to get a signature for their delivery. Fortunately there’s more than one way to record a delivery, and the auditors’ video record shows that the arms company has received the letter outlining concerns about its dodgy export deals. As to why the company has failed to reply; in the words of one auditor, “Maybe they have something to hide.”

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Street Theatre: What are they hiding?

Meanwhile, in the city centre, a group of activists was creating a curious spectacle for the public. A giant and mysterious object, covered by green tarpaulin and camo netting appeared on Market Square, surrounded by placards asking “What’s going on?” and “What are they hiding?”

When bemused passers by approached, the sound of gunfire was heard from under the tarpaulin, which promptly collapsed. The tarp was then drawn aside, revealing a tangled pile of bodies representing the victims of H&K weapons.

Passers by stopped to chat with the campaigners and were interested to learn about the local arms company and its refusal to answer questions about its dodgy arms exports. This piece of hastily-devised street theatre was replayed at Speakers’ Corner and by St Peter’s Church, where it attracted the most interest.

Finally, having collected many petition signatures and handed out thousands of leaflets, the campaigners marched single file bearing placards out to Heckler & Koch’s home on Lenton Lane. Despite being denied entry to Easter Park by Nottinghamshire Police, the activists ended their long day of campaigning in high spirits.

National Solidarity

Most of the street theatre group and the citizen auditors were veteran peace activists from around the country (and around the world), who were in Nottingham to attend the Peace News Winter Gathering. It meant a lot to local campaigners to have their support. The campaign against Heckler & Koch will keep pressing for answers in the year to come.

H&K weapons on display at the DSEi 2009 international arms fair

The first protest against Nottingham-based arms company Heckler & Koch took place in May 2000, but it wasn’t until May 2008 that another demonstration launched the Shut Down H&K campaign, which has been running ever since.

18 months in, the campaign has decided that it’s about time to speak to Heckler & Koch. So, the campaign has written H&K a letter summarising the people’s concerns and asking the company to come clean about its dirty business…

Dear Sir,

We are sure you must be aware of our campaign, Shut Down H&K. We are a group of Nottingham residents, students and anti-arms-trade campaigners who are concerned about the role of Heckler & Koch in the international arms trade.

We hope that you can appreciate that our campaign has arisen out of a genuine concern about the consequences of your trade. We are writing to request information about the recent operations of Heckler & Koch, and to ask you to address our concerns.

We are aware that:

1. Heckler & Koch weapons have been sold to many countries whose armed forces are well known to have committed serious and widespread violations of human rights in recent years, including the Philippines, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
2. The British National Archives show how Heckler & Koch has used the UK to manufacture and sell weapons to countries such as Nigeria and Kenya when such sales were restricted by the German government.
3. Heckler & Koch has licensed manufacturers in countries such as Turkey and Pakistan to produce H&K-designed weapons. Through these arrangements, H&K has profited from sales to countries engaged in armed conflict including Indonesia and Sri Lanka during periods when direct sales to these countries were prohibited by the EU or by the governments of Germany and the UK.
4. In recent years, the security forces of Nepal, Lebanon and Georgia have been armed with Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles after the German government had denied export licenses for those transfers amid concerns about armed conflict and human rights violations.
5. Heckler & Koch weapons have fallen into the hands of child soldiers in Africa, terrorists in the Middle East, militias in Darfur, rebels in Nigeria, arms traffickers in the Philippines, mercenaries in Iraq and organised criminals in Serbia. Heckler & Koch weapons have been used by armed forces in conflicts in which those forces have been accused by international monitors of war crimes, including Bosnia in 1991, South Ossetia in 2008 and Sri Lanka in 2009.

With H&K continuing to advertise its weapons on the international market, we would like to make sure that the company is no longer directly or indirectly supplying weapons to regimes guilty of human rights violations, war crimes or crimes against humanity. In order to ascertain this we would like to know about the business activities of the H&K Group during the period of time since its change of ownership in 2002 (hereafter referred to as the Period).

As the office responsible for “international customer sales and customer services” for non-NATO countries (according to the H&K Group website) we trust that you have the relevant information. By making this information available you would be addressing the growing concerns about Heckler & Koch, and demonstrating that the company has nothing to hide.

1. We would like to see details of all sales (including training, service and repair) made by the H&K Group during the Period. We would also like to see details of any contracts for H&K to provide service or repair that have been in effect during the Period.
2. We would like to know if Heckler & Koch’s UK division (aka NSAF Ltd) has had any involvement, during the Period, in sales to customers that had been denied export licenses by the German government. If so, we would like to know the details of that involvement.
3. We would like to see details of any contracts that have been in effect during the Period whereby a third party was licensed to manufacture products for which the H&K Group owned the designs.
4. We would like to know the full extent of the H&K Group’s involvement in the supply of weapons (or parts of weapons) to Nepal, Lebanon and Georgia.
5. We ask H&K to provide an assurance that none of the weapons it is currently selling will pass into the hands of repressive regimes, arms traffickers, child soldiers, terrorist groups, organised criminals, or armed forces that deliberately target civilians, as so many H&K weapons have in the past. If H&K is prepared to make such an assurance, we would like to know how this can be guaranteed, given the lack of regulation of the international trade in small arms.

If you are willing, a delegation from the Shut Down H&K campaign would like to meet with representatives of Heckler & Koch to discuss our concerns in person.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Shut Down H&K

Arms company Heckler & Koch has been in the news this week. It seems that H&K, whose international sales office is located in Nottingham, is still in the business of arming regimes that are well known to commit gross violations of human rights. We look at three examples from around the world.

Manipur, India

Victims of police violence: a pregnant woman and an unarmed suspect, executed in a crowded market in Manipur, July 2009.

Ever since the state of Manipur was annexed by India in 1949, there has been armed conflict between separatists and the Indian government. In 1958 the Indian government passed the notorious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which gives military personnel powers to arrest or kill anyone they want within a so-called “disturbed” area.

The state of Manipur was declared a “disturbed” area, and was heavily militarised, with land across the state being confiscated to set up army camps. There followed decades of grievous human rights abuses, with Indian police and paramilitaries inflicting beatings, rapes, torture, forced labour, disappearances and extrajudicial killings, all the while protected from prosecution by the AFSPA.

Here’s one example: In 2004, Indian troops raided the home of a 32-year old woman called Manorama Devi, whom they suspected to belong to a separatist group. They arrested her and took her away. Her bullet-riddled corpse was found the next day outside a nearby village. She had been tortured and raped, and then shot in her vagina at close range.

Heckler & Koch cannot be unaware of the gross human rights abuses of its latest customers. The situation in Manipur has been documented for many years. However, that would not appear to be an impediment to business.

The Philippines

To discover the connection between Heckler & Koch and the worst ever atrocity against journalists, we have to go to South-East Asia and the Philippines. This archipelago nation has a terrible human rights record, with state security forces practising vigilantism, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Filipino soldiers armed with modern Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles.

The Philippines has also been one of H&K’s best customers. Over the years the Filipino police and military have been equipped with a variety of H&K assault rifles, sniper rifles and submachine guns.

The endemic corruption of the Filipino security forces provides one of the many routes by which H&K weapons flow from the legal arms trade to the black market. Last year, several high-ranking military and police officials were arrested for taking 72 H&K submachine guns from a police depot and selling them to a Taiwanese-led gunrunning syndicate.

The President of the Philippines is Gloria Arroyo. Until very recently, her chief ally in the south of the country was the Ampatuan clan, which ruled province of Maguindanao. The Ampatuans delivered many votes for Arroyo in the 2004 and 2007 General Elections, which were marred by widespread fraud and violence. In return, the Arroyo administration tolerated the Ampatuan clan’s internecine chainsaw murders.

The scene of the Ampatuan massacre

In the aftermath of the massacre, an arms cache was discovered next to the mansion of the Ampatuan regional governor. Among the weapons recovered was a Heckler & Koch HK11 machine gun.

Once again, there can be no way that Heckler & Koch is unaware of the state-sponsored violence and corruption in the Philippines. And yet the company has continued to arm the regime with the latest in assault weapons.

The US Marine Corps

During the US-led “War on Terror”, the US Marines have committed numerous war crimes and serious abuses of human rights. Among those that have come to light:

US Marine with H&K submachine gun

• During the 2004 offensives against the Iraqi city of Fallujah, US Marine snipers deliberately shot civilians and medical personnel and vehicles, killing thousands. The Marines’ tactical siege and destruction of the city amounted to collective punishment, which is a war crime.
• In November 2005, a US Marine unit went on a rampage in the Iraqi town of Haditha, using guns and grenades to slaughter 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians including women, children and old people. When interviewed, US Iraq war veterans described such acts as common, and said they often go unreported and almost always go unpunished. The Marines are responsible for similar massacres in Afghanistan.
• There has been widespread torture and abuse of detainees by US Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. Documented abuses include beatings, electrocution, burning, sexual abuse and mock executions.

Of course, none of this matters to Heckler & Koch, which stands to profit a great deal from the Marine Corps. H&K already supplies the Marines with submachine guns, and it was announced this week that H&K is almost certain to win a contract to supply the Corps with thousands of state-of-the-art automatic rifles in a deal worth millions of dollars.

Conclusion

In one week, three separate news stories have illustrated how forces that are well known to commit serious human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity are continuing to be armed with modern Heckler & Koch weapons.

These are only the latest examples in a disgraceful history of arming the world’s oppressors. If there is one lesson to be learned from 60 years of Heckler & Koch, it is that the company should not be allowed to reach 61. It should be shut down and its employees tried for complicity in the abuses that they have knowingly profited from.

There is a campaign against Heckler & Koch based in Nottingham called Shut Down H&K. Check the events listing for the next meeting or demonstration, and get involved!