U.S. Joins False Claims Act Suit Against Several Corporations and Individuals
at Mississippi's Stennis Space Center
WASHINGTON, July 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States has joined a
whistleblower suit against Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC);
Applied Enterprise Solutions (AES); Dale Galloway, Chief Executive Officer of
AES; Stephen Adamec, former Director of the Naval Oceanographic Major Shared
Resource Center (NAVO MSRC) at the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County,
Mississippi; and Robert Knesel, Deputy Director of NAVO MSRC, the Justice
Department announced today.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
Mississippi, alleges that the defendants knowingly violated the False Claims
Act when they submitted (or caused to be submitted) false claims and conspired
to submit false claims under a $3.2 billion contract with the General Services
Administration (GSA) to provide support services to a branch of the NAVO MSRC.
In April 2004, GSA awarded the contract to SAIC, which teamed with AES and
Lockheed Martin Space Operations to perform the agreement.
The suit alleges that Adamec and Knesel, then government employees, conspired
with Galloway, SAIC, and AES to ensure that SAIC and its partners were awarded
the contract by (a) sharing non-public, advance procurement information with
the SAIC team that was not provided to other potential bidders; (b) sharing
information about the solicitation with the SAIC team before providing that
information to other bidders; and (c) choosing a type of contract and putting
language in the solicitation in order to bias the selection process to favor
the SAIC team.
The case was filed by David Magee, a former employee at the NAVO MSRC, under
the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. Under the
False Claims Act, a private party, known as a "relator," can file an action on
behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the recovery. The Act
further provides that the United States may recover three times the amount of
its losses, plus civil penalties.
"Those who do business with the government must act fairly and in accordance
with the law," said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil
Division. "As this case illustrates, the Department of Justice will actively
pursue legal action against both contractors and federal employees who seek to
gain an unfair advantage in the procurement process." Assistant Attorney
General West thanked the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Naval
Criminal Investigative Service, and the GSA Office of Inspector General, all
of which aided the Civil Division in its investigation of this fraud matter.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2007, TDD: +1-202-514-1888
