Florida company sold its products as ‘100% American.’ They were from China, feds say
A Florida company that brags on its Instagram page that it’s “America’s Most Patriotic Brand” was a great American fraud, according to an Federal Trade Commission proposed order that posted last week.
Products “100% American made?” Try made in China. Owned and operated by a U.S. military veteran or veterans? Not that, either. The percentage of sales going to veterans’ charities was less than 1/20th of what the company claimed.
The company is ExotoUSA, which does business as Old Southern Brass. The FTC order puts the company in suburban Orlando while its state of Florida registration puts it in a St. Petersburg commercial space. Both say the person in charge is Austin Oliver, who registered ExotoUSA with the state in January.
“The FTC’s proposed order against the company and Oliver, which they have agreed to, prohibits them from making any false or misleading claims, including any about affiliation with or support of the U.S. military or veterans,” the FTC says. “It also requires that $150,000 must be turned over to the FTC.”
The Miami Herald reached out to Old Southern Brass through its website Wednesday. There has been no reply.
Bullets, bottle openers, booze glasses
In announcing the order, the FTC included some examples from the Old Southern Brass website. An Oct. 25, 2022, post said “all of our products are 100% American made, and nothing says ‘Merica like making products right here at home for ‘Merica man or woman alike.”
The FTC said, “The complaint charges that, in spite of such claims, many of the company’s products were wholly imported from China or contained significant imported content.”
That post would be changed April 27, as would all the posts in the “News” section of the Old Southern Bass website. Now, the site’s splash page says only that the company is “American owned” and “All orders ship from U.S.A.”
Speaking of ownership, the FTC said Old Southern Brass claimed veterans operated it and sold bullets and casings used by the military and 10% of sales would go to military service charities.
“Despite the company’s claims, the company was not operated by a veteran, and the products it sold as being used by the U.S. military were not actually used by the U.S. military,” the FTC said. “The complaint also charged that the company did not donate 10 percent of sales to veterans’ charities as it claimed. In fact, the company claimed charitable deductions that amounted to less than one-half of 1 percent of sales.”
But one page of the website still says in a headline the company donates “10% of all proceeds to military charities” and beneath that, says something slightly different: “10% of Old Southern Brass’s profits to select military charities.”
Also, the product listing that the FTC included as an example of a lie — an engraved 50 caliber casing bottle opener would be “Handcrafted from an authentic 50 cal casing that was previously used by the U.S. military” — remains on the website with the same claim as of Wednesday, 4:20 p.m., Eastern time.
