U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that WAYLON GIVENS, age 42, of Amite, was sentenced today after having pled guilty to illegal possession of a machine gun and making a false statement the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan sentenced GIVENS to 5 years of probation and 15 weekends of incarceration. Judge Morgan also assessed GIVENS a $5000.00 fine and 100 hours of community service. As part of GIVENS’ plea, he agreed to surrender his federal firearms license.
According to court documents, in July 2014, ATF conducted an investigation into RH Custom, an internet company based in Sweden. RH Custom was selling “Glock Switches," “Lightning Links," suppressor builder’s kits (silencers) and other firearms components to customers in the United States. Some of these parts are designed to convert semi-automatic firearms to fully automatic firearms, in violation of the National Firearms Act. As a result of the investigation, ATF learned that between June 2012 through August 2012, GIVENS, a Federal Firearms Licensee, doing business as Givens Firearms, ordered and received seven (7) Lightning Links and four (4) Glock Switches. ATF learned of GIVENS’ purchases by reviewing invoices obtained in relation to the investigation of RH Custom.
On July 11, 2014, ATF interviewed GIVENS and informed him of the nature of the investigation and that agents were aware of his purchases from RH Custom. Agents advised GIVENS that if he surrendered the parts to ATF, he would not be arrested and prosecuted for the federal offenses that he committed in relation to his purchase of the parts. Agents advised GIVENS that the purpose of ATF’s investigation was to retrieve the parts that he received from RH Custom. GIVENS told ATF that he sold multiple “Glock full-auto conversion kits" and “Lightening Links" to an unknown individual, but that he did not know the location of the parts. After further investigation, it was determined that GIVENS had sold the illegal parts to known individuals whom he knew were in possession of the parts at the time of the ATF interview.
U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the ATF New Orleans Division Office in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Nolan D. Paige was in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
