Airbus Group’s U.S. based defense and space business has agreed to pay the U.S. government more than $1 million to settle allegations of overbilling on military contracts.
The settlement resolves a False Claims Act
lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice related to contract proposals submitted by Airbus U.S. Space & Defense Inc. between January 2016 and January 2017 at an unapproved cost rate. The DoJ also said that between 2013 and 2020, the U.S. government alleged the company charged federal agencies an additional fee from its affiliates on top of its on fee for parts Airbus acquired from its affiliates and failed to accurately disclose the affiliate fee to the government.
The DoJ also said that Airbus charged another contractor “an excessive monthly storage fee” for a radar system purchased in support of a Navy contract, and passed along the entire fee to the Navy but didn’t disclose that “they paid only a portion of those storage fees to store the radar system.”
The settlement is not an admission of guilt by Airbus, the DoJ pointed out. The allegations came about due to claims by a whistleblower who worked for the U.S. defense business of Airbus.
“This settlement underscores the important role that whistleblowers continue to serve in protecting critical taxpayer resources,” Acting U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “We encourage individuals who uncover suspected misconduct regarding federal contracts to come forward and report their observations.”