Helgen Industries DeSantis Gunhide (B-423635)

You should not care.

Category: Interested party, standing

Date: 26 August 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423635

Helgen Industries, doing business as DeSantis Gunhide, protested the FBI's award to Safariland for concealment and tactical holsters, claiming the awardee was an ineligible large business.

GAO dismissed the protest because DeSantis lacked standing as an interested party. DeSantis acknowledged it was "a veteran-owned, small business manufacturer" that submitted a proposal "through an eligible small business distributor" but was not itself an actual or prospective offeror.

GAO's regulations require an "interested party" to have a direct economic interest as the firm next in line for award should the protest be sustained. A manufacturer's interest in supplying products through another offeror is insufficient to establish standing.

And in an AI alert, DeSantis cited four nonexistent GAO decisions to support its position, prompting GAO to warn about the dangers of using artificial intelligence programs to draft legal filings without reviewing for accuracy. GAO noted such practices "waste the time of all parties and GAO" and reserved the right to impose sanctions for future submissions with citations to nonexistent authority.

Digest

Protest that the agency unreasonably made award to an ineligible large business is dismissed where the protester is a manufacturer of the items being procured and not an actual or prospective offeror.