Federal jury agrees with whistleblowers that the military contractor committed a massive fraud against the U.S. Army while contracted to support military bases in Afghanistan.
GREENVILLE, SC — Nearly 13 years after the lawsuit was filed, and after a six week trial, a federal jury concluded that Fluor Corporation had defrauded the U.S. government during the war in Afghanistan, awarding $15 million in damages, an amount that will be tripled by law to $45 million.
The case was brought under the False Claims Act (FCA) of 1863, a federal law that imposes liability on persons and companies who defraud governmental programs. It was filed as a qui tam suit, meaning it was brought under a provision Congress added to the FCA in 1986 to incentivize whistleblowing by allowing private individuals to sue on behalf of the federal government. Under the 1986 amendment, these individual “relators” are entitled to between 15 and 30 percent of any recovered monies.
The relators in United States of America v. Fluor Corporation, Inc. were Scott Dillard, Rickey Mackey, Charles Shepherd, and Danny Rude. All are former military officers who served their country with distinction, and all worked for Fluor on a massive contract to support United States military personnel on forward operating bases in Afghanistan. Despite working in different departments, with different areas of knowledge and expertise, all four men observed pervasive and systemic fraud in Fluor’s performance on their multi-billion dollar contract.
“This is exactly the kind of case the FCA was meant to make possible, and exactly the kind of fraud it was meant to expose,” says lead trial attorney Jon Loevy of the law firm of Loevy + Loevy, which represents the relators.
His colleague, attorney Daniel Twetten, added, “We want to thank the attorneys in the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office in South Carolina who allowed us to pursue this case to verdict. This demonstrates the value in having whistleblowers come forward and assist the Government in recovering money for the Army, and ultimately the taxpayers.”
The complaint filed by the relators documented their allegations of widespread fraud, including the cover-up of lost property and materials belonging to the United States Army and the falsification of reports to the Government to conceal it. The whistleblowers alleged that Fluor’s fraud interfered with its upkeep of the bases it was charged with supporting, and cost the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
“These veterans—at the cost of their careers—had the courage and integrity to come forward and expose a corporation that ripped off the government and brazenly covered it up,” says attorney Mike Kanovitz. “After they were fired, they each spent more than a decade fighting for this trial so they could bring this misconduct to light. Today’s verdict is the triumphant culmination of their heroic efforts.”
“This was a long, difficult, and highly complex case,” explained attorney Anand Swaminathan. “Fluor thought they could hire expensive law firms to bully a group of ex-military whistleblowers into submission. They were wrong. We are pleased and grateful that the jury listened attentively through six weeks of testimony, and sifted through the mountain of evidence to arrive at a just conclusion. This is a victory not just for our clients, but for the American people.”
Trial counsel were Jon Loevy, Mike Kanovitz, Daniel Twetten, Anand Swaminathan, Frank Newell, Anna Dover, Gwen Parker, Heather Sticht, Dominique Gilbert, Aadi Tolappa, and Alexandra Wolfson of Loevy & Loevy. Local counsel included Richard Harpootlian and Andrew Hand of Richard A. Harpootlian PA. Mr. Dillard is represented by Frank L. Eppes of Eppes & Plumblee PA, and Mr. Mackey is represented by Judah N. VanSyckel of Saluda Law LLC.
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For a copy of the complaint in this case, click here.