Environmental Fraud

Hanson Aggregates — Government Underpayments on Public Resource Lease ($48 million).

Two of our whistleblower attorneys led the representation of a whistleblower in a qui tam action filed under the California False Claims Act alleging underpayments (or “reverse false claims”) under a public resource lease. Specifically, the three defendants, which were engaged in dredging and selling sand and gravel from public lands, were alleged to have paid the State of California less than what was owed by under-reporting the quantity of the sand and gravel removed, as well as its value. Dubbed the “sand pirates” by the media, the defendants allegedly “sold” the sand to affiliated companies they set up, and used artificially deflated prices from those purported sales, instead of the prices paid in real third party transactions when calculating and reporting royalties due the State. Critical issues concerning the proper interpretation of the related leases and related accounting issues were resolved in favor of the government following a seven week trial, in which one of our whistleblower lawyers served as lead trial counsel. The case settled before the next trial phase. California recovered $48 million in combined settlement payments and price adjustments. The whistelblower, a tugboat captain, received a whistleblower award of 30% of the government’s recovery. It was the second-largest recovery for a whistleblower under California state law. See California AG Press Release and Oakland Tribune for more.