Collect Call: 2 Firms Pay $16.5 Mill. For Phone Maintenance Fraud
- March 03, 2011 by Qui Tam
- Federal False Claims Act
A telecommunications company, and a New York financial firm have agreed to pay more than $16.5 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit claiming they defrauded the government. Avaya, which provided desktop phone systems to hundreds of federal and state agencies, was alleged to have billed the government for equipment and maintenance even when the devices didn’t work or had been replaced with upgraded systems. CIT Group was accused of continuing the billing practices when it bought a portion of Avaya’s customer base.
For more information see: http://online.wsj.com/article/AP815fb68aeffc422a9f23f8f3f080ba93.html