Illinois-based hardware distributor, W.W. Grainger Inc., has agreed to pay $70 million to the United States to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims under contracts with the General Services Administration and the U.S. Postal Service.
For more information, please see:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/December/12-civ-1545.html
On August 13, 2012, a U. S. District Court in Dallas, Texas entered a final judgment in the amount $40,472,759 for Qui Tam plaintiffs against a defendant for violations of the False Claims Act. The violations stemmed from fraudulently inflated charges that were submitted by a government subcontractor to Lockheed Martin Corporation and then passed on to the United States government.
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that knowingly submitting low bids, premised on false estimates, can be a violation of the False Claims Act. This case is based on a qui tam complaint filed in 2005 by a Lockheed Senior Research Operations Engineer,
St. Jude Medical Inc., a medical device company based out of Little Canada, Minnesota, agreed to pay $3.65 million to the federal government to settle False Claims Act allegations that it falsely inflated the price of pacemakers and defibrillators sold to the government.
According to the to the Justice Department,
Calnet Inc., which provided intelligence analysis, information technology and translation services to the Department of Defense (DoD), agreed to pay $18.1 million to settle a claim that the company inflated its rates on three contracts with the DoD from 2006 to 2010. The contracts were to provide translation services to the federal government at Guantanamo Bay,
In a Qui Tam False Claims Act suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, ATK Launch Systems Inc., has agreed to pay the United States $21 million and provide necessary in-kind services worth $15,967,160 in reparation costs for 76,000 malfunctioning para-flares that were sold to the government.
On April 23, 2012, the United States Department of Justice announced that Anthony Allega Cement Contractor, Inc., a Cleveland based construction firm, has agreed to pay $500,000 to the U.S. government to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act. The investigation was conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio,
United States came to an agreement of $47 million to settle a case involving a conspiracy to rig the bids on a USAID-funded construction. Harbert Corporation, Harbert International, Inc., Bill Harbert International Constructions Inc., Harbert Construction Services (U.K.) Ltd. and Bilhar International Establishment were accused of causing others to submit false claims,
A whistleblower who had previously alleged that BP committed a violation of the False Claims Act in 2002, has now filed a motion for summary judgment against BP in federal court in Houston, TX.
Kenneth Abbott, formerly a BP contractor on the Atlantis oil field, previously made claims that BP did not retain suitable engineering documents on Atlantis.
In a move that should have whistleblowers rejoicing, Tony West is taking over the position of associate attorney general at the Justice Department. West, who has been the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division since 2009 is taking over for Thomas Perrilli, who leaves the position after three years.
If you are aware of any person, corporation or entity that you think may be violating the Federal False Claims Act or a State False Claims Act, contact us today.