Contract Non-Compliance

April 23, 2019

Oregon-based aluminum supplier Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc., formerly known as Sapa Profiles Inc., together with its parent company, has agreed to pay $47 million to settle criminal mail fraud charges and civil claims alleging that between 1996 and 2015, the company altered the results of tensile tests measuring the consistency and reliability of extruded aluminum, and falsified certifications about products meeting testing requirements and contract specifications. Among the customers who received products that defendants knew did not meet contract specifications were NASA and the Dept. of Defense Missile Defense Agency.  The $47 million total settlement payment consists of forfeiture of $1.8 million, $34.1 million in criminal restitution to NASA, DOD, and commercial customers – $23.6 million of which is also credited to resolve civil claims under the False Claims Act – and an additional $11 million in payments to resolve civil FCA claims.  Defendant entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and has been  suspended as a U.S. government contractor.  DOJ; USAO EDVA

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 28, 2019

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (NGSC) will pay $5.2 million to resolve allegations of False Claims Act liability for fraudulently billing labor under a contract with the United States Postal Service. NGSC, a provider of information and technology services, entered into an Enterprise Technology Services Contract with USPS, and allegedly billed work by personnel who lacked the experience and the education required under the contract. DOJ

January 28, 2019

Universal Concrete Products Corporation, which subcontracted to provide precast concrete for the Dulles Metrorail Project, and its principal Donald Faust, Jr., will pay $1 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company falsified test records to make it appear that concrete panels met the general contractor’s standards when they did not.  In 2018, a UCP quality control employee pleaded guilty in related charges.  The government’s investigation began with a qui tam case filed by an unidentified whistleblower.  USAO EDVA