Government Procurement Fraud

December 19, 2018

Arvco Container Corporation of Kalamazoo, Michigan, will pay $400,000 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by performing 100% of the manufacturing work on a contract that had been awarded by the Defense Logistics Agency to Fibre Technologies LLC in Reading, Pennsylvania, subject to a HUBZone small business program that barred Fibre from subcontracting the entire manufacturing.  USAO MD Pa

December 17, 2018

Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. and its CEO, John Yokley, have agreed to pay $110,000 to resolve allegations under the federal False Claims Act that they misrepresented a consultant's security clearance and failed to disclose a conflict of interest in bidding to perform IT work for the Army and Air Force.  PTFS bid on the contract through the cooperative purchasing program of the National Institutes of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, NITAAC, which enables federal agencies to contract for information technology services. USAO CO

December 4, 2018

The New York law firm of Rosicki, Rosicki & Associates, P.C., and two firms affiliated with it, have agreed to settle a False Claims Act action alleging that in performing legal work including foreclosure and eviction services for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Veterans Administration, the entities submitted bills for costs that were not actual, reasonable, and necessary.  Instead, the false claims for payment included improper mark-ups and other unauthorized charges.  Defendants will pay a total of $6.1 million to the United States, and have agreed to implement a compliance program.  The case was originally brought by whistleblower Peter D. Grubea.  USAO SDNY

November 27, 2018

In New York, Bottini Fuel pleaded guilty to unlawfully retaining overpayments made by fuel oil customers, including public entity customers.  Rather than inform customers that they had made overpayments, or refund those payments, Bottini admitted that it diverted the customers' credit balances to the personal accounts of company owners, employees, and other friends and family.  Bottini agreed to pay over $3.2 million in restitution and civil damages.  The investigation was initiated by the filing of a whistleblower complaint under the New York False Claims Act; the unnamed whistleblower will receive $491,358 of the settlement.  NY AG

November 21, 2018

Andrew Otero and his company, A&D General Contracting, Inc. (“A&D”) were convicted of multiple charges after they were found guilty of constructing a scheme to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Army Corps of Engineers in order to obtain approximately $11 million in federal government construction contracts or task orders set aside for small businesses owned by disabled veterans. Otero, as shown by evidence at trial, does not have any military experience. Yet he and his co-conspirator Roger Ramsey, a veteran, and on behalf of his company, Action, formed a joint venture and falsely represented to the government that Action and the JV met the qualifications to be a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (“SDVOSB”), thus enabling them to bid on the contracts. Additionally, evidence at trial showed that the JV’s daily operations and decision-making did not function as would a legitimate SDVOSB. All four defendants are also facing civil charges. Sentencing will take place on February 19, 2019.    DOJ

November 14, 2018

The United States and three South Korea-based companies, SK Energy Co. Ltd., GS Caltex Corporation, and Hanjin Transportation Co. Ltd., have reached an agreement 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.  As a result of this conduct, the Department of Defense paid substantially inflated prices for fuel supply services in South Korea. Defendants agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay a total of $236 million -- $82 million in criminal fines and $154 million for civil antitrust and False Claims Act violations related to the bid-rigging conspiracy.  The False Claims Act civil investigation resulted from a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.  The settlement is part of an ongoing federal investigation into bid rigging, price fixing and other anticompetitive conduct targeting U.S. Department of Defense fuel supply contracts in South Korea; the defendants have agreed to cooperate with that investigation.  DOJ

November 8, 2018

The United States charged two South Korean nationals, Hyeong-won Lee and Dong-guel Lee, of defrauding the federal government in connection with two multimillion dollar construction contracts their employer, South Korea-based SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd., (SK), had with the U.S. Army. From 2008 to 2017, acting on behalf of SK, the two allegedly submitted fraudulent subcontracts that were based on millions of dollars of kickbacks that SK paid to a U.S. official in exchange for being awarded the contracts. While the fraud was being investigated, the two also took pains to disguise the kickbacks and fraud even further by ordering employees to burn boxes of evidence and persuading them not to testify. DOJ; USAO WDTN