Press Release: B.T. ICE Court Case

March 6th, 2019 – Lake Worth, Florida

Billet Tech Family,

Nearly four years ago we did our first, and only State of the BT Union (SOTU).

We issued this SOTU because, as many of you know, our website billettechnology.com was shut down by ICE, and the Department of Homeland Security for counterfeiting.

We come to you today, as we promised back then in October 2015, when we had information to provide we would provide it. Until that time we would continue to get work in, and that is precisely what we did.

As we mentioned in October 2015 and as we do today the State of the BT Union is strong.

Today, we are pleased to tell you the ICE case as it relates to Billet Technology and our sister companies and partners is CLOSED.

In the nearly four years since we addressed our customers, and potential customers, we have set new sales records each and every month, and year after year.  This is because of you our customers and friends.

With your support and trust, we continued to innovate and create new products, and continued set the bar when it comes to customer interactions, and collaborating with owners to make it “your ride your vision.”

Team BT continued our strong support for events in our community of Mopars and the car community in general. Team BT continued to pay it forward as you our customers, our family, continued to pay it forward to us with your encouragement love and support.

Now, let’s clear the air and give you some brief facts about the case:

• NO criminal charges were filed.
• No BT staff members went to jail.
• No large unmarked trucks or SWAT teams were raiding our facility and loading things up in large unmarked trucks (as was being spread by a non-involved member of law enforcement, who has a part time business selling car parts).
• Team BT paid no fines to the government. The case was closed with the government bearing their costs and us bearing our costs.  Team BT paid NO damages to FCA.  
• During the early course of the case our bank accounts were seized. Our merchant account frozen and closed. At NO TIME did any customers lose any money, orders were filled, and no one was cheated. Were we slow to ship product? Yes, but we always have been and even now it can truly be luck of the draw on when your order ships depending on when we go out to finish or if you ordered during the Countdown/Peoples Sales each November. As you know and as we tell you we build to order here and have since day one.
• In order to continue operations, we posted a cash surety bond to open new accounts and our customers were never affected.
• There were many customers that canceled orders after those website seizures. All PayPal payments were promptly refunded and any folks that had a 30% deposit taken to begin work the money was immediately refunded.  When it comes to your money trust is delicate. We understand that is why we have, and will continue to be open in our policies and operations so you as a customer or potential customer can make an informed decision if you want to enter and become part of the BT Family.
• Our teammates here at the facility were fully informed so they could make a decision to stay or not. The team here remained in place. I commend their loyalty to what we do here and their loyalty to you, our customers. It is the same crew that has brought you these products since 2006. There is one exception, one former employee, who left before the ICE case, engaged a smear campaign online and with one single competitor. Together they magically started having knock off product of our own, and also knocked off product of others in the industry (documented by those businesses that were affected by the competitor’s business practices).
• In our agreement with the government our funds are being returned to us that were seized. As a give back, we agreed that the government would keep possession of www.billettechnology.com and www.custombilletstore.com with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations seizure banners being removed. In fact they were removed in August 2018 when we came to a principle agreement with the government in Detroit. The sites will remain forever extinguished and the property of the government in perpetuity. We want to thank the Assistant US Attorney and Special Agents for their courtesy during that meeting.
• There was lots of internet innuendo and chatter that Billet Technology and its sister and parent companies just “turned the sign around” and bought new domains to bypass the law. THIS IS 100% FALSE. We owned the current .net sites you visit now and have visited for nearly four years since 2006. These sites have always been forwarding sites to the old .com sites and served as backup sites in case of a crash on the .com side of things.
• Billet Technology has always operated on a two-tier website with both fully integrated into each other. Billettechnology.net the site where news articles and general information is posted, and custombilletstore.net the actual shopping cart platform you purchase your BT bling at and that we also fill your orders at when you call in with a phone order.
• In the coming weeks our companies and members of our staff will be turning our attention away from defending what was an alleged criminal case and successfully defended, and have started pursuing all avenues available to us in Federal Civil Court against those companies and individuals who spread false rumors, and allegations against individuals within the corporate structure and against those companies and individuals who had a hand in stealing our designs and technology where those designs and tech ended up in competitors hands.

In closing we want to sincerely thank each and every one of you who have stood with us, and continued to not only buy our products, but to do so in record numbers over the course of these nearly four years. Words cannot express our sincerest gratitude to you, our customers and friends for that support but most importantly of all for the trust you placed in us.

With love and gratitude,