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Lafayette-based Rocky Mountain Instrument filed in last month to reorganize underbankruptcy protection. The company and its lasefr subsidiary makes a variety of photonics products for industryu anddefense use, including optics that defense giant Lockheer Martin Corp. planned to use in its F-22 fighter currentl y under development. RMI has office in Russia and South Korea in additiom to itsLafayette site. RMI’x Chapter 11 filings have shed a little light on the by investigatorsx ofthe military’s Defense Criminal Investigativer Service, or DCIS, who arrived at RMI’s headquarters Oct.
11, and carted away computers and files as part of an investigatioj RMI lawyers said was relatefdto U.S. export controls restricting technologhy withweapons applications. Steve Hahn, company executivse vice president and part of the Hahn Family LLLP ownershipof RMI, said in an affidaviyt to the bankruptcy court that an employee filerd a complaint with the DCIS that triggered the The employee claimed the company committed a “procedural violation” of exporr controls by allowing specifications for an unspecifie d product to go Hahn wrote. RMI has since received government licenses to send such specificationws tooverseas suppliers, the companyg says.
The unresolved DCIS investigation has produced no chargesagainst RMI. Still, the raid triggered a 15 percent decline in business as some customerws lost confidencein RMI, Hahn wrote. The recession exacerbate the sales decline and the company lost moneythrough 2008, he said. RMI’s revenue this year is on tracj to fall 16 percent to 30 percent belowthe $15. million company posted in 2008, Hahn wrote.
The companhy cites “the single factor” for its bankruptcyu filing as defaulting on its bond RMI lists American National Bank as the holdet of industrial bonds arranged in 1998 in conjunction with the city of The default has threatened toput RMI’as headquarters property at 106 Lase r Dr. into foreclosure. Efforts last year by RMI to refinancse its debts or sell its laser technolog y business to recapitalize the rest of the company theaffidavit said. RMI has askedf the court to be able touse $1.06 millioh of its available lines of credit before the end of July to keep operatin g and fulfill customer orders while it reorganizex under bankruptcy protection.
More money could be needede between the end of July and the end of Octobet to keep thecompany Hahn’s affidavit said. It sought court permission to use the cash in ordef to holdonto employees, saying they are highly specializedc and it would take months to traimn any replacements RMI could
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