NORTHROP TO PAY $12.5 MILLION TO SETTLE FALSE CLAIMS ACT CASE

Northrop Grumman Corp. has agreed to pay the federal government $12.5 million to settle allegations that it neglected to test certain electronic parts it supplied for navigation systems in military airplanes, helicopters and spacecraft, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday.
The settlement stems from a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in May 2006 against the Century City-based defense contractor. In the suit, Allen Davis, a former quality assurance manager at the company’s navigation systems division in Salt Lake City, alleged that Northrop failed to ensure that the electronic parts would function in the extreme temperatures required for military and space uses from November 1998 to February 2007. As a whistleblower, he will receive 2.5 million dollars for revealing wrongdoing in this False Claims Act case.