by Ben Vernia | June 5th, 2018
On May 29, the Department of Justice announced that UK-based Inchcape Shipping Services Holdings Ltd. has agreed to pay $20 million to settle allegations – originally brought as a whistleblower suit by three former employees – that the company overbilled the U.S. Navy for ship husbanding services. According to DOJ’s press release:
Inchcape Shipping Services Holdings Limited and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, Inchcape) have agreed to pay $20,000,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly overbilling the U.S. Navy under contracts for ship husbanding services, the Department of Justice announced today. Inchcape is a marine services contractor headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Inchcape provided goods and services to Navy ships at ports in several regions throughout the world, including southwest Asia, Africa, Panama, North America, South America and Mexico. Inchcape provided ships with food and other subsistence items, waste removal, telephone services, ship-to-shore transportation, force protection services and local transportation. The lawsuit alleged that from 2005 to 2014, Inchcape knowingly overbilled the Navy for these services by submitting invoices that overstated the quantity of goods and services provided, billing at rates in excess of applicable contract rates, and double-billing for some goods and services.
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DOJ announced that the three relators will receive $4.4 million (a 22% relators’ share).
