On June 24, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Washington announced that federal contractor Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (WRPS) agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle whistleblower allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by fraudulently overcharging the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for millions of dollars in labor hours at the Hanford Nuclear Site’s “Tank Farms.”
The case stems from a qui tam whistleblower suit filed by a WRPS employee. The whistleblower is set to receive $1.4 million of the settlement amount and is entitled to have WRPS pay attorney fees.
According to the government, “WRPS’ management was aware of and failed to prevent inflated labor hours being charged to DOE, including labor hours in which WRPS employees, paid for with federal funds, were not scheduled or assigned sufficient work to perform.”
Specifically, the government alleges that “WRPS fraudulently inflated reimbursable costs by failing to provide its employees with work assignments sufficient to fill an entire shift and then directed those same employees to record their time as if they had worked the entire shift” and that “this false recording of time resulted in WRPS knowingly submitting false claims for the payment of those labor hours.”
“The relator-whistleblower in this case is to be commended,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker. “This individual came forward with serious and credible allegations of fraud that were then investigated for years. We are able to uncover fraud and hold fraudsters accountable only when good people come forward and report it to law enforcement, whether that’s through the filing of an under seal qui tam complaint or stepping forward as a witness.”
The False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions enable private citizens and private parties to file lawsuits on behalf of the government if they know of an individual or company defrauding the government. Qui tam whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 15 and 30% of the government’s recovery.
During FY 2024, settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act exceeded $2.9 billion and over $2.4 billion of the recoveries stemmed from qui tam whistleblower lawsuits. Furthermore, according to the government, a record 979 qui tam lawsuits were filed in FY 2024.
However, in September 2024, a district judge in Florida ruled that the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions were unconstitutional. The U.S. federal government is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to reverse that decision, stating in a brief that “other than the district court here, every court to have addressed the constitutionality of the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions has upheld them.”
National Whistleblower Center has issued an Action Alert allowing whistleblower supporters to write the members of Congress urging them to protect and strengthen and protect the False Claims Act.
The claims asserted in this case are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
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