Environment

Failure to perform required environmental tests

A prominent aircraft company agreed to pay the government $4.05 million to settle a qui tam suit alleging that it failed to perform certain tests on components used in advanced electronic equipment, including radar units for military aircraft and missile guidance units.  The whistleblowers were former company supervisors.  According to the lawsuit, the company did not perform certain environmental screening tests on microcircuits (known as hybrids) that it manufactured and shipped.  The qui tam suit alleged that company employees were ordered to omit tests, to shorten required procedures, to certify hybrids that had failed tests, to perform unauthorized and undocumented rework on hybrids that had failed tests, and to falsify the documents accompanying each piece to show that the proper tests had been done.

Overcharging for environmental cleanup efforts

An environmental company agreed to pay $850,000 to settle allegations made by a former employee that it had defrauded the government by overbilling for services in its contract to clean up illegal methamphetamine labs.  The company allegedly used false overtime and expense invoices, submitted fraudulent vacation allowances, paid its employees below the market wage to keep the extra funds received in the contract, and illegally disposed of chemicals used in cleaning up the labs.