Topic · fca

False Claims Act

False Claims Act mechanics, treble damages cases, certification-based liability theories.

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independent
FAR Council squeezes termination settlements to 90 days
The proposal buys faster closeout by making contractors choose between thin support, late filings and False Claims Act exposure.
The FAR Council proposed cutting the deadline for termination settlement proposals from one year to 90 days while leaving the underlying support burden intact. Primes, subcontractors and counsel would have to collect cost data, address inventory, develop profit positions and resolve subcontractor claims on a compressed clock. The efficiency case is obvious. So is the litigation risk if contractors pad estimates or file before the record is ready.
MON
regulator
DOE lifts AFCA false-claim cap to $1 million
A 6.7x penalty jump turns old billing disputes and compliance representations into larger legal inventory for energy contractors.
The Department of Energy issued a final rule updating its Administrative False Claims Act regulations, raising the maximum claim amount from $150,000 to $1 million and extending DOE’s enforcement lookback. Primes, subs and counsel now have materially higher exposure for false claims, reverse false claims and written misrepresentations involving federal funds. The rule does not specify whether the higher cap reaches pre-rule conduct.
JUL 11
judicial
Canadian-owned firms settle SBIR FCA claims for $223,618
This is SBIR eligibility hygiene dressed as fraud enforcement, important for documentation but not a new DOJ targeting theory.
Advanced Global Services, Paradigm Shift Technologies and Gennady Yumshtyk agreed to pay $223,618 to settle False Claims Act allegations tied to Small Business Innovation Research awards funded by the Air Force and Navy. Contractors and counsel should treat SBIR eligibility representations as FCA-sensitive contract records. The settlement is modest and SBIR-specific, so it signals continued DOJ attention rather than a broader Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative shift.
JUL 10
judicial
LOGZONE pays $507,144 over Navy DFARS cyber failures
DOJ is converting DFARS control gaps into fraud exposure, which is a different problem than a bad assessment score.
LOGZONE Inc., a Huntsville, Alabama defense contractor, agreed to pay $507,144 to resolve False Claims Act liability for knowingly failing to meet DFARS cybersecurity requirements on Navy contracts. Primes, defense-industrial-base suppliers and counsel should read this as more than a contract compliance miss. DOJ’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is again treating covered defense information controls as payment-integrity conditions, with no public answer yet on whether any data was compromised.
JUN 18
judicial
David Duggin pleads guilty in IC kickback case
The charge is simple procurement corruption, and the release leaves almost everything operationally useful off the page.
Former intelligence community contractor David Duggin, 55, of Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court in Maryland to conspiracy charges tied to a kickback scheme. DOJ says he conspired to commit offenses against the United States by soliciting and accepting kickbacks. For contractor counsel, the useful fact is the charge language; the release supplies little detail beyond it.
JUN 12
judicial
Broadway, Cornerstone agree to $21.3M set-aside settlement
The personal payments matter as much as the corporate check: DOJ named the CEO and president in the False Claims Act resolution.
Broadway Electric Inc., Cornerstone Contracting Inc., CEO John Oehler and President Christian Blake agreed to pay $21.3 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they improperly obtained federal contracts reserved for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and other eligible small businesses. The source does not describe the alleged certification defects, so the usable lesson is narrower: set-aside eligibility allegations can pull companies and senior executives into the same settlement.
JUN 9
judicial
Nevada man pleads guilty in $1.8M Air Force bid-rigging scheme
The plea keeps DOJ’s procurement-collusion strike force pointed at base-level facility buys, where modest contracts still carry felony exposure.
Scott G. Srodes, a former shelving and storage distributor employee, pleaded guilty in the Middle District of Georgia to bid rigging and conspiracy to defraud the government. DOJ says collusive bids covered more than $1.8 million in Air Force healthcare projects at Moody Air Force Base and aircraft maintenance facilities at Nellis, funded through the Defense Logistics Agency’s Facilities Maintenance, Repair, and Operations Program. It is the second guilty plea in the investigation, with individual employees squarely in DOJ’s frame.
JUN 2

False Claims Act

FAR Council squeezes termination settlements to 90 days

DOE lifts AFCA false-claim cap to $1 million

Canadian-owned firms settle SBIR FCA claims for $223,618

LOGZONE pays $507,144 over Navy DFARS cyber failures

David Duggin pleads guilty in IC kickback case

Broadway, Cornerstone agree to $21.3M set-aside settlement

Nevada man pleads guilty in $1.8M Air Force bid-rigging scheme