by Ben Vernia | July 1st, 2022
A day after the Department of Justice announced that Delta Airlines had agreed to settle allegations that the company misrepresented international mail delivery times, DOJ announced that Air France and KLM Airlines have reached a similar deal, this time for $3.9 million. According to DOJ’s press release:
The Justice Department announced today that Air France and KLM Airlines (AF/KLM) have agreed to pay $3.9 million to resolve their 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). AF/KLM are international air carriers with headquarters in Paris and Amsterdam, respectively.
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USPS contracted with AF/KLM 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, AF/KLM 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 AF/KLM falsely reported the time and fact that they transferred possession of the mail.
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The case arose from a government investigation, and not from a whistleblower’s qui tam complaint.
