Whistle blowing

[empip]

Here is some detail of a remarkable 'whistle blowing' in aerospace.
US style.

..The federal False Claims Act is a remarkable law.
It says to citizens of the U.S. - if you have information about corporations that are defrauding the federal government, come forward, tell federal prosecutors about it, and if federal prosecutors can verify your claim, they will join with you and sue the corporation to recover the
amount of money that the corporation defrauded from the United States.
If you can prove your case, and the government recovers the defrauded money, then you, ordinary citizen, will get a cut of the recovery anywhere from 15 to 30 percent.

All talk and no trousers ? Ask Lucas industries as was ..

A British industrial corporation, Lucas Industries plc, and two of its U.S. subsidiaries, will pay the United States $88 million to settle a lawsuit alleging they failed to properly test military airplane parts and knowingly shipped defective parts to the Navy, Army and Air Force under contracts with the Department of Defense.
The agreement settles a suit, United States ex rel. Copeland v. Lucas Western, Inc., et al., filed as a qui tam, or 'whistleblower' action, under the False Claims Act against Lucas Western Inc. in September 1993 by Frederick C. Copeland, a former machinist for the company.
LWI, based in Park City, Utah, manufactures aerospace gearboxes, hoists and similar devices for the military. The Department filed an amended complaint in May 1995 claiming that LWI employees
falsified gear charts for the Airframe Mounted Accessory Drive
(AMAD), a key component of the Navy's front line carrier based fighter, the F/A 18 Hornet. LWI personnel, after finding one conforming gear in a lot with many non conforming gears, ran multiple gear charts from the single good gear and attached the charts to uninspected gears.
The government's complaint also alleged that LWI falsified manufacturing and assembly inspections on the AMADs. The government alleged that 100 percent of approximately 80 AMAD gearboxes subjected to tear down inspections as part of the investigation contained parts with major defects. LWI's illegal practices affected other military programs. For example, the government alleged that a tear down inspection of a gearbox called the Azimuth Drive Unit (ADU), which LWI produced for one of the Army's premier artillery systems, the Multiple Launch Rocket System, showed that 100 percent of the 35 ADU samples contained major defects. Lucas manufactured the parts under military contracts totalling $400 million. The Navy will receive $8.8 million of the settlement in the form of in-kind considerations: products and spare parts for the AMAD program. Copeland will receive 21 percent, or $19,360,000, as his share of the settlement. On January 10, 1995, following a criminal investigation supervised by the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, California, LWI pleaded guilty to 37 felony counts of making false certifications to the Department of Defense that 35 AMAD and two ADU gearboxes had been fully inspected in accordance with the applicable contractual requirements, when, in fact, they had not. LWI paid a criminal fine of $18.5 million. The U.S. subsidiary of Lucas Industries plc, Lucas Industries, Inc. (LINC), also was a defendant in the civil action. LINC owns 100 percent of LWI. ('Lucas Industries Pays U.S. $88 Million to Settle Lawsuit,' 9 Corporate Crime Reporter
38(7), October 9, 1995)

Small change to a company with, at the time, estimated yearly revenues of around $7 billion.
Question is, did Frederick C. Copeland get his dosh ? and if he did, has he lived happily ever after ? And if so, would he care a rats ar-se about being on an employer's black list

On a more serious, but topical note, this stuff was deployed during the Gulf war .... Where were the corporate thoughts centred whilst youngsters fought for the liberty of all ??
Food for thought this November week.
qui tam law
"qui tam pro domino rege quam pro seipse" - "he who sues for the king as for himself"
E

 

[kendor]

funny how whistle blowing seems encouraged if it benefits monetarily for a particular company yet if it's whistle blowing because of a health and safety issue then it's all hush hush

 

[empip]

The Lucas debacle was all things, H&S, USAF .. taxpayers dosh .. Sending guys to war with potentially rubbish equipment.

You may just ask where the faulty parts were sourced, and if they were made from the correct materials, Fred obviously had an 'axe to grind' if perhaps not some gear blanks ...

P'raps Inspection management was used to top quality gears, home sourced, where generally if one in the batch is good then the others would generally also be found so .. No excuse but could happen.

I hope old 'Freddy' (Copeland) enjoys the dosh !!
2nd 'blimey'... 'Freddy' ... I wonder.....