The man who turned BondCote in to the feds is after the Pulaski County company again.

Four years ago, Keith Ayers revealed that BondCote was using a carcinogen in fabric that became tents for U.S. troops. On Friday, the Georgia resident was in Pulaski to give BondCote employees a warning flier.

"The employees have never been notified that they were exposed to lead chromate," Ayers said Monday.

Ted Anderson, BondCote's president and chief executive officer, said that's not true. Employees were tested for contamination after the company stopped using the toxic pigment in 2003, according to Anderson. "We didn't find any that was attributable to our operations," he said.

Last year, Anderson pleaded guilty on behalf of his company to lying about the toxic content of the fabric. Darrell Wayne Holden, who was in charge of certifying the fabric safe, also pleaded guilty.

Holden, who could have been fined $200,000 and sentenced to two years in prison, was fined $2,000 and sentenced to two years' probation. The company, which has about 160 employees at its plants in Pulaski and Dublin, got a $250,000 fine, had to initiate $60,000 worth of community service programs, submit to government searches and get independent tests to ensure its products meet standards.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the punishment should have been more severe. "It sends a clear signal that you can get away with murder," he said on CNN shortly after the fine was announced.

Grassley wanted the contaminated tents destroyed.

"We shouldn't be asking our troops to be in a tent of death," Grassley said.

The tents were not destroyed and BondCote still sells to the U.S. military. In 2003, it supplied nearly three-fourths of the military's tents, tarpaulins and vehicle covers.

Though the search warrant that allowed federal agents to raid the company's Pulaski and Dublin plants said the fabric posed "significant health risks to U.S. military personnel," the government's position changed at trial. Government testimony described the levels of lead chromate in the fabric "relatively safe."

In addition to cancer, lead chromium can affect children, fetuses and reproductive systems. Court documents said the chemical can also cause respiratory tract burns, eye irritation and allergic reactions.

Since the criminal case was concluded, the company has been fined by Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality for violating air quality standards. It also received an incentive package from the state to expand its Pulaski plant.

Ayers filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the company in 2003. The federal government took the case and settled with BondCote for $1.7 million. Ayers got 20 percent of that.

But Ayers said his company, Advanced Materials, did about $850,000 worth of business a year with BondCote until he told BondCote he knew about the lead chromate in the tents. Ayers had a $13,000 payment dispute with BondCote. Some reports have said Ayers offered to keep quiet about the chemical if BondCote paid him the disputed money. Ayers said the company offered to pay him if he kept quiet.

"My motives are not entirely altruistic. I'm not going to say they are," Ayers said Monday. "I don't know if you could call it revenge, but BondCote said a lot of nasty things about me."

In the small world of the plastics industry, Ayers said, that has hurt his business. Advanced Materials, which used to have 10 employees, now has two, Ayers said.

Ayers said he plans to continue trying to contact BondCote employees and the employees of companies that buy BondCote fabric. He hopes to spawn a class-action lawsuit against the company.

BondCote filed a complaint in federal court Tuesday claiming that Ayers' actions were a "total disregard for the terms of the parties' settlement agreement." That agreement, according to the filing, forbids Ayers from communicating with BondCote employees, making statements to the media about BondCote products or assisting with any class actions.

The company asked that the court declare Ayers in violation of the agreement, order him to follow the terms of the agreement and to award the company damages, including attorney's fees.

Staff writer Lindsey Nair contributed to this story.