The Boeing Company has paid the United States $23 million to settle whistleblower allegations of fraudulent billing under maintenance contracts for the C-17 “Globemaster” aircraft at Boeing Aerospace Support Center (BASC), in San Antonio, during the period 2003-2007.
The whistleblower lawsuit was filed under the federal False Claims Act on October 29, 2007 by then current and former Boeing employees: Clinton Craddock, Fred Van Shoubrouek, Anthony Rico and Fernando de la Garza. All are San Antonio residents except Craddock, a former San Antonian who now resides in Oklahoma. The United States exercised its right to intervene in the case concurrent with the settlement. The whistleblowers alleged that Boeing knowingly billed the government for labor hours charged simultaneously to more than one job, for hours charged to jobs after they were completed, for hours charged to the wrong jobs, and for hours charged to aircraft maintenance jobs when the time actually was spent on other, non-chargeable activities.
The whistleblowers will receive $3.91 million as their reward for bringing the False Claims Act case and assisting the government in the investigation and resolution of the case. They are represented by attorneys Glenn Grossenbacher, Rand Riklin and John Clark, and Rosemarie Alvarado, of San Antonio, and Gary Grossenbacher, of Austin.
Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers
