Lloyd: Force Protection settles with $1.8 million payment

Lloyd: Force Protection settles with $1.8 million payment
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina defense contractor that makes armored vehicles for the Pentagon has agreed to pay the government $1.8 million to resolve allegations brought in a whistleblower lawsuit, U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd said Wednesday.

The suit claimed Force Protection Inc. of Ladson "failed to advance payments to expedite production of armored vehicles for the U.S. military," Lloyd said in a news release.

The company, whose vehicles are used Afghanistan and Iraq to find and remove bombs, denied any wrongdoing.

The case was filed in U.S. District Court in South Carolina by Justin Lucey, a Mount Pleasant attorney, on behalf of two former employees of Force Protection, Lloyd said. He identified the two as Perry Chomyn and Robin Swain.

"The settlement resolves Force's potential liability under the False Claims Act arising from the whistleblower's complaint," Lloyd's release said.

The two former employees "will receive $315,000 as their share of the proceeds of the settlement" and got "and additional $105,000 in attorney fees and settlement of their employment-related claims," the statement said.

Company vice president Mike Aldrich told The (Charleston) Post and Courier that the company agreed to the settlement over an accounting technicality.

"We're pleased with the settlement and are especially happy with the investigation, which was extensive and which found that none of the criminal allegations, and especially that none of the safety allegations, were substantiated," Aldrich told the paper.

The company said it took a charge of $1.93 million in the second quarter to cover the settlement and interest charges, plus legal fees for the former employees who filed the lawsuit.
Lucey said his clients also were satisfied with the settlement.

"We believe we contributed to making these vehicles safer for our soldiers by bringing this suit, and we are happy to have reached this settlement," he said.

In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it agreed to settle over an issue involving an advance payment as part of its work for the Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicle.

The lawsuit claimed the company used the payment "for purposes other than that to which the United States government had intended."

The company said the error essentially amounted to depositing the payment into the wrong bank account.

Force Protection employs 550 workers at its Ladson plant - up from just 12 employees two and a half years ago.