Dating back to a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2006 against ATK Launch Systems (“ATK”), a subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems has agreed to settled a false claims act case for nearly $37 million dollars.
The whistleblower had alleged that ATK was selling defective military flares to the U.S. Air Force dating back to the year 2000. The lawsuit alleged that ATK knew that the military flares they were selling were defective and that they didn’t inform the military that they were defective even after they uncovered the problems with the flares. The whistleblower lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Salt lake City, Utah.
Included in the $37 million dollar settlement is a payment of $21 million to the federal government as well as a requirement that ATK retrofit the defective flares that remain in the possession of the military which was estimated to cost $16 million dollars.
The whistleblower who stepped forward and brought this fraud to the attention of the federal government will be rewarded with a portion of the amount recovered by the federal government, typically between 15 to 25 percent.