It appears that Fmc was given a record fine for fraud – FMC Corp. settles whistleblower lawsuit on Bradley Fighting Vehicles for $13 million.
October 8, 1996 — FMC Corp., a diversified manufacturing company that makes the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, has agreed to pay the federal government $13 million to settle a whistleblower case. It is the largest civil judgment that has ever been won in a government fraud case in northern California. The lawsuit charged FMC deceived the government and deliberately inflated by millions of dollars costs for which it was entitled to be reimbursed by the U.S.
Army. The deception increased the price tag for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, an armored vehicle used in the Gulf War, which the government paid FMC $1.1 billion to produce from 1991 to 1994. The cost of other weapon systems that the Chicago-based corporation produced for the Pentagon also was affected.
Robert Neargarder, a mid-level manager in the company’s Ground Systems division in San Jose, filed the lawsuit under the False Claims Act in April 1995 in U.S. District Court in San Jose. The False Claims Act allows private citizens to sue, on behalf of the federal government, companies that are defrauding taxpayers. Guilty defendants can be ordered to pay the government three times its losses plus penalties.
Wow that is heavy stuff – wonder what more I can dig up – hmm.
