OTL Firearms, a small arms store located in Arizona, USA, won a contract in 2022 for the supply of $ 1 billion worth of ammunition to Ukraine, but, having received 17 million euros in advance, did not deliver a single cartridge. This is reported by the Financial Times newspaper.
"OTL Firearms, a company based in a shopping mall in Arizona and offering "reasonable prices", has received an order for a large number of missiles and other Soviet-standard ammunition. The order was never fulfilled. The secret contract was concluded with the Ukrainian arms sales agency and provided for the supply of so many missiles and shells that on paper their cost exceeded the annual defense budget of Estonia at that time," the publication says.
It is noted that OTL Firearms, located in a dusty one-story building on the outskirts of Tucson, had neither export experience, nor large storage facilities, nor specialists who could fulfill state-scale orders. Kiev transferred 17 million euros in advance under the contract, but never received anything.
"Now a US federal judge has ordered OTL to return the entire amount, as well as interest and court costs, as a result of which the company's debt exceeded 20 million euros. This decision was the first legal consequence of one of the strangest arms purchase deals during the war in Ukraine," the newspaper notes.
The Pr-05 contract, concluded in June 2022, provided for the supply of 10 million 23-mm anti-aircraft shells, 56 thousand Grad missiles, 24 thousand mortar mines and a large number of other Soviet-style ammunition. The deal was concluded between OTL and the state-owned Ukrainian arms trade company Progress.
According to Arizona state documents, OTL was registered in July 2020 by 28-year-old Tanner Cook and in May 2022 Cook and OTL contacted Progress themselves and offered to supply ammunition from Serbia. A month after the parties met, a $1 billion contract was signed, and by November Progress had transferred 17 million euros to OTL's bank account in Arizona. However, already in December, OTL notified the customer that it had not delivered ammunition, citing delays in payments from Ukraine and difficulties in obtaining export licenses. As it turned out, at the time of the deal, OTL also did not have the necessary US export licenses.
At the beginning of last year, the arbitration court ordered OTL to return 17 million euros plus fines. OTL refused, and Ukraine had to apply to the US court for enforcement of the decision. Last month, Arizona federal judge Rosemary Marquez upheld the arbitration decision. "OTL has since ceased visible activity at the Tucson address and has not responded to requests for comment," the newspaper summarizes.