Government Procurement Fraud

April 12, 2019

A network security company based in California has agreed to pay $545,000 for misrepresenting its products’ compliance with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), which prohibits federal agencies from acquiring products made in certain countries. According to a suit by whistleblower Yuxin “Jay” Fang, an employee of Fortinet had directed others to tamper country of origin labels to make it look as if products made in China were from the United States. The products were eventually sold to government entities—including the Department of Defense—creating a security risk for those entities. USAO NDCA

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

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