Manroy Buys Sabre, the Beleaguered US Arms Company

Manroy’s US subsidiary, Manroy USA, has won the auction to purchase bankrupt US arms manufacturer Sabre Defence Industries.

Manroy USA bought Sabre for $4.95 million, beating out rival Colt. Firearms Blog reported a previous relationship between Sabre Industries and Manroy, because the the owner of Sabre, Guy Savage, had previously purchased Ramos Defense from the current owner of Manroy.

Sabre was in dire difficulties because its British owner CEO Guy Savage and four of his executives were under indictmen:

by a federal grand Jury in Nashville on 21 counts of illegal international arms trafficking, conspiracy, making false statements, smuggling, wire fraud and mail fraud.(source) (new source)(new source #2)

Manroy plans to reopen the plant and rehire the staff, though it had misgivings about rehiring the executives under indictment.

Bankuptcy News blog reports Manroy executive Steve Sarles as saying:

“The executives are in question right now because of the federal charges. We need to have our lawyers look at that. That’s an ugly situation.”

Brandon Gee, writing in the Tennessan provided an in depth summary of the case against Sabre exectives, in the US District Court, in Tennessee. Subsequently four of the executives pleaded guilty in plea bargains.