Government-Contract Services Provider Settles DOJ Charges for Submitting Inflated Invoices

A management, consulting and engineering firm providing services on government-backed contracts settled a False Claims Act case with the United States and a private qui tam relator following allegations that the firm made false statements and submitted inflated invoices.

The settlement agreement recites allegations that the service provider violated Cost Accounting Standards ("CAS") and Federal Acquisition Regulation requirements by allocating indirect costs to its government contracts that should have been allocated to its commercial and/or international businesses or treated as "unallowable costs." The government had alleged that the service provider used the costs otherwise attributable to its commercial/international business to inflate payments and reimbursements under its government-contract-backed practices, resulting in improperly inflated reimbursements from the government. Further, the United States had alleged that the service provider disclosed incomplete cost and pricing data and submitted inaccurate or misleading statements regarding its accounting methods for indirect costs, including on its CAS disclosure statements, in furtherance of its fraudulent endeavors.

The $377,453,150 settlement figure resolves conduct occurring between April 2011 and March 2021. It also resolves qui tam litigation involving the alleged conduct first filed nearly nine years ago. The qui tam whistleblower, a former employee of the company who first reported the activity in question, will receive a $69,828,833 relator’s share award. The settlement measures as one of the largest of the year and one of the larger settlements in recent history. The company denied the allegations.