Stow, Ohio – A 70-year-old Stow resident, Vall Iliev, has been sentenced to 63 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to smuggling foreign-made body armor into the United States and marketing it as domestically manufactured and certified. U.S. District Court Judge Donald C. Nugent handed down the sentence and ordered Iliev to pay approximately $5.2 million in restitution for his role in the scheme.
According to court documents and testimony, the scheme unraveled in May 2023 when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted a Canadian-registered truck at the Blaine, Washington port of entry (POE). The truck was carrying over 200 ballistic body armor plates packed in boxes from China. Authorities discovered that the items were concealed using a smuggling technique called “Master Carton Smuggling,” where smaller packages are hidden inside a larger shipping container to avoid detection at the border.
The armor shipments were pre-addressed to Iliev’s home or his businesses, Vallmar Studios and ShotStop, both based in Stow. Vallmar Studios was used as a warehouse to handle and process the body armor, which was then sold through ShotStop’s website to law enforcement agencies and members of the public.
False Claims of U.S. Manufacturing and Certification
Although ShotStop’s marketing materials claimed that the armor was “American made” and certified by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), federal inspectors determined that none of the items met NIJ certification standards. The NIJ, which operates under the U.S. Department of Justice, is responsible for setting performance standards for ballistic-resistant police body armor. Only manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. who meet these strict standards are allowed to use the NIJ’s trademarked certification labels.
Federal investigators found that the imported armor plates were falsely labeled with NIJ-certified and U.S.-made markings after they arrived from China but before they were sold. Despite the company’s claims, neither Vallmar Studios nor ShotStop had the capacity to manufacture body armor in their Stow facilities.
Investigation and Legal Outcome
This case was the result of a joint investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Cleveland Office, with help from the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Duncan T. Brown for the Northern District of Ohio.
Iliev’s sentencing sends a strong message about the dangers of fraudulent protective equipment, especially when sold to law enforcement agencies who rely on these products for their safety. The $5.2 million restitution order aims to compensate victims and affected agencies who purchased the falsely advertised body armor.
