A lawsuit unsealed Wednesday alleges vehicle maker Navistar defrauded the US government of at least $1.28 billion by forging invoices, catalog prices and other data in deals to make Mine Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) trucks for the US military.
The US government has intervened in a six-year-old qui tam complaint filed by a whistleblower from Navistar Defense, which alleges under the False Claims Act that the company “used false and misleading documents to support alleged ‘commercial prices' of vehicle components, including the chassis, engines, and suspension systems,” according to a Wednesday press release by Sanford Heisler Sharp, the legal firm representing the whistleblower.
“The forged and fraudulent documents allegedly served to mask that these vehicle components either had no commercial sales history at all or, when they did, had commercial prices amounting to approximately half the price that Defendants charged the Government,” the statement continues.
Duquoin Burgess, a contractor who worked in Navistar Defense's contract management department from 2009 until October 2012, filed the complaint after witnessing the alleged practices firsthand.
Burgess' attorney, Vince McKnight, told Defense News that knowledge of the alleged fraudulent activities went right to the top, including Navistar executives and its president at the time, Archie Massicotte.
“The Department of Justice will hold accountable those contractors who…
