by Ben Vernia | October 15th, 2015
On September 28, the Department of Justice announced that L-3 Communications Corp. and two related entities have agreed to pay $4.63 million to settle civil claims, originally brought by a former independent contractor, that the companies mischarged costs for personnel being deployed to Afghanistan, by essentially rounding up their time in stateside centers. According to DOJ’s press release:
L-3 Communications Corporation, Vertex Aerospace LLC and L-3 Communications Integrated Systems LP (collectively L-3) have agreed to pay $4.63 million to resolve allegations that they inflated labor hours for time spent by independent contractors at the military’s Continental U.S. Replacement Centers (CRC) in Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Bliss, Texas, preparing to deploy to overseas posts to support U.S. military operations abroad. The CRCs prepare individuals for deployment by providing orientation briefings, training, health screenings, payroll processing and addressing other administrative matters.
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L-3 performed rotary aviation maintenance and support services for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt and Kuwait under contracts with the U.S. Air Force. The United States alleges that from 2006 through November 2011, L-3 knowingly overcharged the government for time their independent contractors spent at the CRCs by billing for each individual not based on the actual time that individual spent at the CRC, but based instead on the earliest arrival or latest departure time of any other individual who also processed through the center that same day.
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The whistleblower in the case will receive a bounty of $798,675 (a 17.25% relator’s share).
