An South Carolina based defense contractor that makes armored vehicles for the Pentagon has agreed to pay the government $1.8 million to resolve allegations brought in a whistleblower lawsuit.
The case was filed in U.S. District Court in South Carolina by Justin Lucey, an attorney, on behalf of two former employees of Force Protection, Perry Chomyn and Robin Swain. The suit claimed the company "failed to advance payments to expedite production of armored vehicles for the U.S. military".
The company, whose vehicles are used in Afghanistan and Iraq to find and remove bombs, denied any wrongdoing.
The two former employees "will receive $315,000 as their share of the proceeds of the settlement" and got "an additional $105,000 in attorney fees and settlement of their employment-related claims," a statement said.
Company vice president Mike Aldrich told the press that the company agreed to the settlement over an accounting technicality.
The lawsuit claimed the company used advance payment "for purposes other than that to which the United States government had intended."
The company said the error essentially amounted to depositing the payment into the wrong bank account.
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