Qui Tam – Ms Sparky

Archive for the Qui Tam Category

You’re dismissed and other news

By Forseti | Filed in Agility/PWC/GCC, Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Qui Tam, Rape, Hazing, Discrimination & Harassment, Reports & Investigations, Security Contractors

By Mel Bochner

Defense attorneys were critical of the FBI’s reliance on the informant [Richard Bistrong], an executive of a Florida body armor company [Armor Holdings] who they called a sociopathic liar with a devious mind. They said he was able to persuade federal agents to let him plead guilty to a single bribery count for more than $4.4 million in bribes to officials at the United Nations and overseas even though he had a history of bribery, embezzlement, tax evasion, drug use and solicitation of prostitutes. ~Justice gives up sting case over foreign bribes

Reliance on contractors in Afghanistan draws continuing scrutiny
Charles S. Clark - (GovExec) – February 24, 2012 – The use of contractors in the decade-long U.S. effort to train Afghanistan’s army and police forces continues to raise policy questions as the Obama administration struggles to meet its goal of winding down the American troop presence in the volatile region.

The Government Accountability Office on Thursday reported that the Defense Department — after it took over from the State Department in 2009 the task of training and equipping Afghan security forces — hired a contracting firm without first weighing the advantages and disadvantages of assigning U.S. government personnel to train the war-torn country’s national police.

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“We can’t do anything about it until we get the call.” How about you pick up the phone!

By Ms Sparky | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations

Worse than traitors in arms are the men who pretend loyalty to the flag, feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the nation while patriotic blood is crimsoning the plains of the south and their countrymen are moldering in the dust. ~Abraham Lincoln

In the last few weeks the DoD and other government entities have issued press releases requesting our help in identifying criminal acts committed hither and yon. They are asking for support in their new found “investigative momentum” against fraud in combat zones.

Not only did many critics consider the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction late to the game — opening its office seven years into the war — but already in its short life its first chief has resigned, the man who replaced him also quit, and Congress has blasted the agency for not living up to its mission.

I have heard from many readers that Afghanistan is crawling with fraud, waste and abuse. Many have commented on the fact that the “good old boys” from Iraq simply switched out their lanyards for a new color and are carrying on, business as usual.

Trent’s office is similar to its predecessor in America’s other war — the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, for which Trent has also worked. But while that office faced its own challenges, including a Republican-led effort to shut it down in 2006, the agency eventually came into its own and has been widely praised by lawmakers.

According to its own figures, the Iraq office has returned more than $154 million to taxpayers from seizures and other actions over the last seven years, and its investigations have lead to 57 convictions, many of them of military personnel, on charges including bribery, fraud, and money laundering. ~Director: Agency to get aggressive with fraud, waste in Afghanistan – Stars and Stripes

Here’s my problem with the statement above, first of all $157 million is merely a drop in the bucket. According to reports, and there have been plenty, tens of BILLIONS have been misappropriated and wasted. To date only a few small fry’s have seen the inside of a courtroom.

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Tags: Charles M. Smith, False Claims Act, Fraud Waste and Abuse, James A. Brady III, LOGCAP, Qui Tam, SIGAR, Steven J. Trent

Charging forward and other news

By Forseti | Filed in Civilian Contractors, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Politics, Qui Tam, U.S. Air Force

Michael Riddle once served as a senior employment manager for Dyncorp International, Incorporated (“Dyncorp”). He alleges that Dyncorp contracted to create a database for the United States government, but took no meaningful steps toward fulfilling its obligations. He further alleges that when he protested Dyncorp’s inaction on the database project, he was marginalized at work and eventually terminated, on September 21, 2009.

The judgment of the district court is REVERSED and the case is REMANDED for further proceedings. ~ January 5, 2012 – RIDDLE v. DYNCORP INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED (Case No. 11-10155)

Defense firm cuts 200 jobs locally
Thomas Gnau - (Dayton Daily News) – January 7, 2012 — Computer Sciences Corp. said Friday it will remove more than 200 employees and contractors from their jobs with a government computer modernization project.

Heather Williams, a spokeswoman for Falls Church, Va.-based CSC, said she could not say how many of those people will be reassigned or laid off.

“I think that’s possible for anybody,” Williams said.

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DoJ starts the new year with Maersk false claims settlement

By Forseti | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations

Maersk Line to Pay Us $31.9 Million to Resolve False Claims Allegations for Inflated Shipping Costs to Military in Afghanistan and Iraq

(DoJ) – WASHINGTON – January 3, 2011 – Maersk Line Limited has agreed to pay the government $31.9 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the United States in connection with contracts to transport cargo in shipping containers to support U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Justice Department announced today. The government alleges that Maersk, a wholly-owned American subsidiary of Denmark-based A.P. Moller Maersk, knowingly overcharged the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The government contends that Maersk inflated its invoices in various ways. For example, Maersk allegedly billed in excess of the contractual rate to maintain the operation of refrigerated containers holding perishable cargo at a port in Karachi, Pakistan, and at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan; allegedly billed excessive detention charges (or late fees) by failing to account for cargo transit times and a contractual grace period; allegedly billed for container delivery delays improperly attributed to the U.S. government; allegedly billed for container GPS-tracking and security services that were not provided or only partially provided; and allegedly failed to credit the government for rebates of container storage fees received by Maersk’s subcontractor at a Kuwaiti port.

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Tags: A.P. Moller Maersk, Afghanistan, Army Criminal Investigation Command*, DoD*, False Claims Act, Iraq, Jerry H. Brown II, Maersk Line Limited, Maj. Gen. David Quantock

Judge to Seal Filings in KBR False Claims Suit

By Ms Sparky | Filed in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, Qui Tam, Reports & Investigations

Rose Bouboushian – (Courthouse News) – December 9, 2011 – Halliburton and KBR can redact portions of their motion to dismiss claims that they knowingly billed the United States for fictitious services, a federal judge ruled.

The whistle-blower, Benjamin Carter, worked as a reverse osmosis water purification unit (ROWPU) operator for Halliburton’s former subsidiary KBR in Iraq from January 2005 to April 2005.

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Tags: Ben Carter, Benjamin Carter, Employee Issues-KBR, False Claims Act, Halliburton, Judge James Cacheris, KBR, Service Employees International (SEII)