International Whistleblowers

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

Pure Collection - Customs Fraud ($908,100)

Constantine Cannon represented a whistleblower in a False Claims Act case alleging Pure Collection avoided paying U.S. customs duties on its goods shipped from the United Kingdom. In February 2018, the company agreed to pay $908,100 to settle the matter.  Our client received a whistleblower award of 18% of the government's recovery.  Read more -- Financial Times, DOJ, PR Newswire, CC.

September 24, 2018

The SEC announced that it awarded $4 million to an individual residing overseas who had submitted a tip to the SEC Whistleblower Program.  The individual's tip led to an investigation.  The whistleblower's name, the subject of the underlying investigation, and the nature of the wrongdoing were not reported by the SEC, which offers anonymity under its Whistleblower Program.  SEC

September 24, 2018

Azam Doost, the former owner of Equity Capital Mining LLC, which operated a marble mine in Afghanistan, was convicted for defrauding the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a U.S. government agency in a $15.8 million loan the company obtained from OPIC. Doost had represented that he had no affiliation with mine suppliers who were paid from the loan proceeds; in fact, he had financial relationships with several of the suppliers, and diverted OPIC funds paid to those suppliers for his own use.  DOJ  For information on later sentencing, see here.