by Ben Vernia | April 25th, 2023
On April 24, the Department of Justice announced that a Utah-based division of L3 Technologies, Inc., has agreed to pay $21.8 million to resolve civil allegations that the company provided false contract proposals for communications equipment. According to DOJ’s press release:
L3 Technologies, Inc., Communication Systems West, a Utah-based manufacturer of communications equipment for military systems, has agreed to pay $21.8 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting and causing the submission of false claims to the Department of Defense by including in contract proposals the cost of certain parts twice, the Department of Justice announced today.
From approximately 2008 to 2011, L3 submitted, and the Department of Defense accepted, dozens of contract proposals for a handheld receiver called the Remote Operations Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER), and a compact transceiver called the Video Oriented Transceiver for Exchange of Information (VORTEX), which operate together to provide real-time, full-motion video and other crucial data from the battlefield. The contract proposals included the cost of low-cost common-stock items, such as nuts and bolts, twice. As a result, the United States alleged that L3 knowingly double-charged the government for these parts.
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The government also announced that it had agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by L3 for $7,982,554. That case — brought in the Court of Federal Claims — alleged “that in an effort to prevent L3 from continuing to double-charge for common-stock items, the Department of Defense improperly prohibited L3 from charging certain other costs.”
Accordingly, the government will receive a nbet settlement of approximately $13.8 million.
