Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. (“HII”), a military services contractor headquartered in Newport, Virginia, agreed today to a $9.2 million settlement of allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by over-billing the Department of Defense (“DoD”) for labor on U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships at its shipyards in…
Two whistleblowers brought fraud allegations against shippers of military freight and helped the U.S. Government recover $13 million in a False Claims Act settlement announced this month. The case involved a nationwide contract described by Transport Topics Newspaper as “the largest logistics outsourcing in history.” Richard Ricks, 58, and Marcelo Cuellar, 30, filed a complaint under…
The United States Department of Justice filed a False Claims Act (“FCA”) complaint against DynCorp, International alleging that the company overcharged the federal government to train Iraqi police forces. DynCorp, which is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a large logistics, transportation, and military-services subcontractor and is used extensively by the U.S.…
Ricky Howard, a former employee of a California construction company that did work on domestic military bases, will receive $1.48 million dollars for his information regarding fraudulent billing practices. Howard has worked in the masonry trade his entire career, and was employed by Harper Construction Company (“Harper”) when he discovered…
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided unanimously on two issues: first, that the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act (WSLA) applies only to criminal charges and not to civil claims; second, that the first-to-file bar does not apply to new claims once a previous claim has been dismissed. The suit brought…
An Illinois federal court rejected IBM Corporation’s (“IBM”) motion to dismiss a relator’s False Claims Act case accusing it of conspiring with other companies to submit approximately $50 million worth of fraudulent claims for a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) emergency response project. Although it went awry, “Project Shield”…
A recent ruling by the Fourth Circuit has put the False Claims Act allegations made by Frank Skinner, a former executive of Armet Armored Vehicles Inc. (“Armet”), back in play. According to a federal district court in Virginia, the Circuit’s decision in Badr v. Triple Canopy Inc. has amounted to…
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has revived the federal government’s False Claims Act case against Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. (“Bollinger”) in connection with a contract under which Bollinger was to modify eight vessels owned by the United States Coast Guard (“Coast Guard”). The $78 million in modifications ultimately rendered the…
Yesterday, a federal judge in Illinois refused to dismiss the majority of a relator’s allegations brought under the False Claims Act against Northrop Grumman Corporation (“Northrop”). The complaint alleges that the global security company and one of the largest defense contractors in the world defrauded the federal government in connection…
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday that the Boeing Company (“Boeing”) has agreed to pay $23 million to the federal government to settle allegations made by a number of relators that the aerospace and defense industry giant submitted false claims for labor charges in connection with its contracts…