Los Angeles-based Coast Produce Company recently found itself in a real pickle amid allegations that it grossly overcharged the U.S. military for the delivery and provision of fresh fruits and vegetables. According to a recent press release, the defense contractor agreed to settle the allegations for $4 million and entered into a corporate integrity [...]
One of the founding goals of the False Claims Act was to root out fraud among Civil War-era defense contractors. The False Claims Act was first proposed over 150 years ago to help military leaders navigate questionable weapon contracts, but fraudulent defense claims still pose a problem today. The fraud that plagued Civil War [...]
Aside from healthcare fraud, defense contractor fraud remains the most costly form of financial abuse faced by the U.S. government. The False Claims Act, which was originally enacted to defend against wartime fraud and false claims, allows relators to recover up to 30 percent of any settlement or verdict recovered pursuant to a defense [...]
Earlier this month, government contractor Sandia National Laboratories agreed to pay $4.7 million amid allegations that it improperly and intentionally misallocated federal funding in order to pay for lobbying efforts to Congress regarding contracts for nuclear research and development. Much like healthcare fraud, government contracting fraud is becoming a growing problem in need of [...]
Aside from healthcare fraud, defense contractor fraud remains one of the top forms of waste and abuse addressed by the False Claims Act. Too often, big-budget defense contracts serve as fodder for dishonest companies to inflate and exaggerate costs, resulting in unnecessary spending of an already-strained defense budget. In one recent defense contractor case, [...]
False claims occur in virtually every aspect of federal contract work. In today’s case, we look at a recent multi-faceted settlement, the details of which have been ongoing for most of 2015, involving relocation services for U.S. military members. The case was brought to light by several employees of the moving companies after noticing [...]
In yesterday’s post, we reviewed the arguments presented to the U.S. Supreme Court both for and against the applicability of the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act (WSLA), which works to extend statutes of limitations in times of war. The case involved allegations against Kellogg Brown & Root by a False Claims Act relator pertaining [...]
Over the past two years, we have monitored the procedural milestones of a closely-watched False Claims Act case involving the global defense contractor Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. Based in Houston, Texas, the firm provides logistical support and engineering services to both private companies and the federal government, including over $40 billion in [...]
The False Claims Act is one of the most successful federal statutes when it comes to recouping money lost due to wasteful fraud committed against the government and, as a result, the taxpayers. When it was enacted, soldiers and other participants in the U.S. Civil War were experiencing widespread fraud under government contracts for [...]
In another military fraud case, Swiss-based Supreme Foodservice has agreed to pay a total of $434 million to the United States following allegations of fraud under the False Claims Act. The lawsuit was commenced after several employees raised concerns over the ownership structure of Supreme Foodservice, alleging it was using shell companies to “double [...]
