Figure in Probe Once Worked at Burbank Firm : Company Described Him as Invaluable in Selling Its Defense Products

An industry consultant whose Woodland Hills home was one of 38 sites searched this week as part of a nationwide defense fraud probe was “the leading force” in a Burbank company’s efforts to nail down key contracts, according to court records.

The consultant, Fred H. Lackner, 51, then an employee of Burbank-based Ocean Technology Inc., was a particularly successful salesman and was “invaluable” to the firm in selling its anti-submarine warfare products to other contractors and to the Defense Department in the mid-1980s, the company asserted in documents filed in connection with a 1986 lawsuit. Lackner left the company in early 1986.

Ocean Technology’s assessment of Lackner’s importance to its $45-million marketing program illustrates the extent to which defense contractors generally depend on the skills of marketing specialists--either outside consultants or in-house employees--to push their esoteric product lines.

Leaks of Information

Lackner and other consultants, some of whom are former Pentagon employees, figure prominently in the FBI’s expanding investigation of allegedly widespread bribery in the awarding of government defense contracts. Some current government officials are suspected of providing consultants with closely held information that could have assisted them in obtaining profitable contracts for their clients.

Lackner’s expertise was so valued by Ocean Technology that the company raised his salary from less than $40,000 in 1980, when he was first hired, to more than $75,000 by mid-1985, the court documents show.

However, company officers obtained Lackner’s resignation as director of the business development department, effective in January, 1986, after, they said, it was discovered that he had approached the long-time manager of Ocean Technology’s office in Washington about the possibility of starting a new business to promote the products of other companies.

Arnold D. Larson, chairman and chief executive officer of Ocean Technology, is the man who forced Lackner out. He refused to discuss Lackner’s tenure at his company in detail but said that Ocean Technology “has always conducted its business affairs in accordance with the highest ethical standards. We have never tolerated illegal or unethical behavior. And we never will.”

Won’t Discuss Probe

When reached at his home Friday, Lackner refused to discuss the FBI investigation. His attorney was not available for comment.

After Lackner left Ocean Technology, he worked briefly for American Nucleonics Corp., based in Westlake Village, a company officer said. He then was hired to work in the Camarillo office of Unisys Corp., a computer and electronic components manufacturer, whose Minnesota and Long Island, N. Y., facilities were searched by the FBI Tuesday.

Lackner became a private consultant only within the last year, the American Nucleonics officer said.

“We have a very high regard for Fred, both ethically, morally and performance-wise,” Al Schneider, director of human resources for the Westlake Village company, said. “He was a very valuable employee.”

Named in Search Warrant

Lackner’s name surfaced this week in a federal warrant authorizing an FBI search of the Arlington, Va., home of Stuart Berlin, head of the ships systems engineering branch of the Naval Air Systems Command, the main contracting office for the Navy’s aircraft-related procurement. Berlin is under investigation in the widespread inquiry, sources say.

The search warrant sought Berlin’s bank statements and information about his relationships with Lackner and another defense industry consultant, William Parkin of Alexandria, Va., the Knight-Ridder news service reported this week.

The details of similar warrants authorizing searches at Lackner’s home and at the offices of four Southern California defense contractors have not been made public. All the warrants were executed last Tuesday.

The FBI investigation is expected to result in the indictment of more than 100 government workers, contractor employees and former Pentagon officials who are now private consultants, sources have said.