by Ben Vernia | June 30th, 2022
On June 30, the Department of Justice announced that Delta Airlines, Inc., had agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle allegations – originally brought by a whistleblower – that the company defrauded the Postal Service by falsely reporting delivery times for international mail delivery. According to DOJ’s press release:
The Justice Department announced today that Delta Airlines Inc. (Delta) has agreed to pay $10.5 million to resolve its alleged liability under the False Claims Act for falsely reporting information about the transfer of U.S. mail to foreign posts or other intended recipients under contracts with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Delta is an international air carrier incorporated in Delaware with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
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USPS contracted with Delta to take possession of receptacles of U.S. mail at six locations in the United States or at various Department of Defense and State Department locations abroad, and then deliver that mail to numerous international and domestic destinations. To obtain payment under the contracts, Delta was required to submit electronic scans of the mail receptacles to USPS reporting the time the mail was delivered at the identified destinations. The contracts specified penalties for mail that was delivered late or to the wrong location. The settlement resolves allegations that scans submitted by Delta falsely reported the time and fact that it transferred possession of the mail.
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The case apparently arose from a government investigation, rather than a whistleblower’s lawsuit.
