Judge denies motion to dismiss Glock's RICO charges

A federal judge denied a motion requesting the court to dismiss civil racketeering charges against the owner of Glock and his cohorts.

The order issued Feb. 5 states the case is a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations action, as it was initially filed by Helga Glock, the ex-wife of the gun mogul Gaston Glock, in October 2014. The case was filed following their divorce proceedings.

The request was submitted in August 2015 by defendant Peter Manown who was named in the suit alongside more than a dozen other individuals and businesses as part of a scheme to hide and conceal money from Helga Glock and others like the U.S. federal government.

The dismissal of the request is part of a series of small victories in the ongoing suit. In December, the judge reversed his decision to stay the case until lawsuits in Austria were resolved, and in August 2015 the court ruled that Helga Glock could use more than half a million documents her attorneys obtained in her divorce proceedings.

The original 356-page complaint details dozens of alleged fraudulent transactions coordinated by Gaston Glock and a small team of senior officials in the early 2000s. Similar allegations involving the same timeframe have been brought to state and federal court by separate plaintiffs.

According to court documents, Helga and Gaston Glock were the only two shareholders of the company when it entered the U.S. market in 1983. The company now commands 65 percent of the market share for U.S. law enforcement agencies, and supplies guns to military and law enforcement to more than 48 countries and to civilians in more than 100. The company has an estimated annual revenue of $400 million.

In 2011, after more than 50 years of marriage, Gaston, now 85, divorced Helga, cut ties with their three grown children, and then married a 31-year-old woman (a nurse who aided him after a stroke in 2008).

Helga Glock is seeking $500 million plus unspecified punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

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