Archive

April 3, 2019

Sandra Ruballo and Carlos Andres Montoya were found guilty of wire-fraud, bribery, and money laundering for their role in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud the Child Care Food Program, a federally funded food program for underprivileged children in South Florida daycare centers. The conspirators drafted fake paperwork, entered into kickback arrangements, rigged the catering bidding process and inflated annual budgets in order to secure federal funds for their own personal benefit. Ruballo is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, 2019. Montoya is scheduled to be sentenced on June 5, 2019. Each defendant faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. DOJ

March 20, 2019

South Korean companies Hyundai Oilbank Co. Ltd. and S-Oil Corporation will plead guilty and pay $127 million in fines to resolve criminal and civil claims arising from the defendants’ alleged bid-rigging and price-fixing in contracts to supply fuel to U.S. military bases in South Korea.  The settlement, the second announced by DOJ in an ongoing investigation, resolves criminal conspiracy and antitrust claims, as well as civil antitrust and False Claims Act violations related to the bid-rigging conspiracy. DOJ

March 5, 2019

The United States reached a $25 million settlement against an Afghan delivery and transport subcontractor accused of violating the False Claims Act. From 2010 to 2012, Hikmat Shadman Logistics Services Company (HSLSC) and its owner, Hikmatullah Shadman, allegedly overcharged the United States millions of dollars by inflating their rates to well above those of competitors, falsifying thousands of documents, and charging for work that was never performed. In addition to the civil charges, HSLSC faced criminal charges for paying bribes to at least two U.S. service members to influence the awarding of contracts. As part of the criminal settlement, the company and its officers have agreed to seek no further business with the United States and to refrain from applying for travel visas to the United States. DOJ; USAO DC

February 22, 2019

Mark Cundiff of Macon, Georgia, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $380,000 to the federal government.  Cundiff, a former DOD employee at Robins Air Force Base, was responsible for soliciting bids for new contracts at the base.  Cundiff accepted cash payments of $2,000-$8,00 monthly over the course of almost ten years from co-defendant Raymond Williams (previously sentenced to five years in prison) in exchange for drafting bid solicitation Performance Work Statements in such a way that the contracts could only be met by Williams and his companies, US Technology Corporation and US Technology Aerospace Engineering Corporation.  The UST companies and Williams received almost $14.5 million in government contracts as a result of the bribery scheme.  USAO MD GA

February 21, 2019

Body armor manufacturer Survival Armor, Inc., will pay $900,000 to resolve claims that it falsely claimed to qualify as a small business to secure a five-year small business set-aside contract to provide tactical body armor to the Department of Homeland Security.  The company is, in fact, a subsidiary of a large foreign parent company, and not a small business.  USAO MD FL

February 20, 2019

Clifton Burch and Peter McKean have been found guilty by a jury for conspiring to submit fraudulently rigged bids for construction at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is paid for and overseen by the Department of Energy.  Burch and McKean agreed to and did submit bids that were not genuine, but were intended to be higher than a $5.7 million bid submitted to the DOE by a “developer” who would then pay them.  The "developer" was, in fact, an undercover agent.  USAO ND Cal

February 15, 2019

James King of Baltimore, Maryland, a former official with the Department of Veterans Affairs, was sentenced to 11 years in prison following his guilty plea for soliciting and receiving bribes from three for-profit schools that enrolled disabled military veterans.  The VA paid over $2 million to the schools that paid the bribes through its Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program.  DOJ

February 8, 2019

In connection with alleged fraud on a multi-billion dollar Department of Energy contract, the United States has filed a False Claims Act complaint against Mission Support Alliance LLC (MSA), Lockheed Martin Services Inc. (LMSI), Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMC) and Jorge Francisco Armijo, currently VP of LMC but formerly president of MSA. The complaint alleges that defendant LMSI violated the FCA by submitting false statements about its profits to order to inflate its billing rate. The complaint also alleged that, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Act, defendant LMC paid Armijo and other MSA executives more than $1 million in order to win a $232 million subcontract to clean up the Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington State. DOJ; USAO EDWA

February 5, 2019

Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories Environmental LLC has agreed to pay the United States $135,742 after self-disclosing that it had improperly billed the U.S. Army $67,871 for 1,436 test results that it later discovered were improperly altered by an employee. Since coming forward about the misconduct, the Pennsylvania branch of the international laboratory testing provider has fired the employee, retested the samples in question, and worked with the government and other regulators to implement preventative measures on similar misconduct. USAO EDPA

January 29, 2019

E.M. Photonics, Inc. (“EMP”) and its Chief Executive Officer, Eric Kelmelis, will pay $2.75 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by seeking disbursements from federal agencies for falsified labor costs and duplicative work in order to maximize charges to contracts awarded by federal agencies. From January 2009 to April 2014, EMP received funds under seven different contracts and grants awarded through the federal Small Business Innovation (“SBIR”) and Small Business Technology Transfer (“STTR”) programs. EMP and Kelmelis directed EMP employees, or caused others to direct EMP employees, to complete false timesheets and submit false invoices and public vouchers for direct labor that did not occur. EMP and Kelmelis also sought and received SBIR/STTR funding for work already performed and funded by another government agency and falsely certified that such work was, in fact, non-duplicative. The government alleged that both of these schemes were designed to maximize charges to each contract or grant. DOJ